Virginia Beach's Town Center, a burgeoning mixed-use urban center and a portion of the Pembroke Strategic Growth Area, is bounded on the south and east by Thalia Creek, a tributary of the Lynnhaven River. Thalia Creek forms a beautiful, natural buffer between Town Center and the nearby residential neighborhoods, but is also a barrier to active travel. A vision for a greenway along Thalia Creek first started up in the mid-90s with two broad goals:
- Improve pedestrian access between Town Center and the neighborhoods; and
- Open up the Thalia Creek corridor for the enjoyment of citizens on both sides.
A greenway is a linear corridor of protected open space, often including trails and following natural land and/or water features linking parks, urban centers and residential districts with each other.
The City worked with consultants and an active community through 2006 and 2007 to develop the Thalia Creek Greenway Master Plan. View the concept plan below (click image to view larger):
Development of the Thalia Creek Greenway will occur in multiple phases.
Phase 1 - Completed
The builder of Midtown Apartments built approximately 300 feet of the trail in 2009 as a part of the private development. This portion of the trail remains on private property for now, but the plan is to open it to the public when Phase 2 connects to it.
A foot bridge from Constitution Drive to Midtown Apartments was built in 2011 with cost savings from the Constitution Drive extension project. It is 10’ wide, 435' long and uses LED lighting for nighttime use.
Phase 2 - Under Construction
In June 2012, VDOT awarded a $640,000 grant to the City for Phase 2. Originally, Phase 2 ran from Independence Blvd to the City-owned property on Bonney Rd, but design challenges forced City staff and VDOT to change Phase 2 to connect from the end of the Midtown Apartments section to Bonney Road. Construction will begin in September 2017.
Phase 3 - Under Design
With the design challenges resolved for the section from Independence Blvd to the City-owned property on Bonney Rd, VDOT awarded a $1,000,000 grant to the City in June 2015 for what now is called Phase 3.
Additional Future Connections
The 2007 Master Plan includes a continuation across Constitution Drive to connect to the former NSRR Corridor and then up to Virginia Beach Blvd. Another line will continue across Bonney Road to connect to Mount Trashmore Park via a bridge, which will provide a valuable bike-pedestrian linkage across I-264 as envisioned in the master plan and the Pembroke SGA Plan. Currently, the nearest crossing points for bikes and pedestrians are at the busy interchanges with Independence Blvd and Rosemont Rd.
A separate project, also funded in part by a grant from VDOT, will add a sidewalk along the west side of Independence Blvd through the I-264 interchange, from Baxter Rd to Bonney Rd.