A building contractor is preparing to install the Hopkinsville Greenway pedestrian bridge that will span Country Club Lane and LaFayette Road.
Country Club Lane will be closed from 9 a.m. to no later than 4 p.m. Wednesday while workers from Scott and Murphy move a section of the bridge into place, city officials said. Detour signs will be installed to guide traffic around the site.
The bridge is part of Phase II of the greenway expansion on the city’s rail-trail. The 1.7 mile expansion will extend the greenway from the Pardue Lane Trailhead to the area of Foston Chapel Road near Eagle Way.
Hopkinsville City Council approved the $4.6 million project as part of the city’s WINS projects adopted under former Mayor Carter Hendricks’ administration. About $1 million of the funding came from state grants.
Another road closure on LaFayette Road will be required later to complete the bridge installation.
“Once installed, the 1400-foot bridge, spanning over a quarter-mile, will be the longest of its kind in the commonwealth,” a city official said in a news release.
Phase I of the Hopkinsville Greenway was completed in 2013. It is approximately 3 miles, starting with the river walk near the Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library downtown and running south to the Pardue Lane Trailhead and the city’s dog park.
Ground was broken on the Phase II extension in October. After the coronavirus pandemic raised concerns about the city’s budget this spring, Mayor Wendell Lynch addressed questions about finishing the rail-trail project.
State health guidelines allowed construction work to continue, and the city had legal contracts to finish the work, Lynch said in early May.
Also at that time, City Administrator Troy Body said the city had already spent $1 million on the project, while the pedestrian bridge was being manufactured for an additional $1 million.
“So, if we stopped the project, the city might save $1 million in bonded monies but would, essentially, lose nearly $3 million in spent/grant funds with nothing to show for it,” Body said.
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
