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):
Phase 1 - Completed
The builder of Midtown Apartments built approximately 300 feet of the trail in 2009 as a part of the private development.
A footbridge 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 - Completed
The City was awarded a grant from VDOT for $640,000 in June 2012 to construct Phase 2. Construction is complete and the trail is now open to the public. This section connects the western limit of Phase 1 along Thalia Creek to Bonney Road. A boardwalk and overlook provide scenic views of the marsh and creek. The Thalia Creek Greenway is now three-quarters mile long.
Phase 3 - Under Design
The City was awarded a $1,000,000 grant from VDOT in June 2015 for Phase 3 of the Thalia Creek Greenway. Upon completion of Phase 2 construction, the City will move forward with construction of Phase 3 of the trail which will continue the trail from Phase 2 to Independence Boulevard. Construction completion is expected in 2020 and will increase the total length of the constructed trail to roughly one mile of greenway.
Additional Future Connections
The 2007 Master Plan identifies the continuation of the Thalia Creek Greenway from the existing eastern limit of Phase 1, across Constitution Drive and heading northeast to connect to the City-owned former NSRR Corridor, then on to Virginia Beach Boulevard. See the project description for the proposed
Virginia Beach Trail to construct the remaining 10.5 miles of a 12-mile Shared Use Path within this corridor. This segment of the proposed Virginia Beach Trail will create a northern loop to the Thalia Creek Greenway.
Future master planning also includes a connection from Bonney Road to Mount Trashmore via a pedestrian bridge over I-264; thus, providing a valuable and safe linkage between neighborhoods and the urban core of Town Center by removing the pedestrian barrier of the highway, as envisioned in the Thalia Creek Greenway Master Plan and the Pembroke SGA Plan. To date, the nearest pedestrian crossing are at the busy I-264 interchanges of Independence Boulevard and Rosemont Road.