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P R O F I L E
“The $38-million trail runs south from Bella Vista in Benton County to Fayetteville in Washington County, and ties together a broad crosscut of the community of 500,000 people.”
Connecting Northwest Arkansas Years in the making, 37-mile Razorback Regional Greenway winds through urban and rural settings in six cities and two counties of Northwest Akransas.
By RICHARD MASSEY Contributor T he Razorback Regional Greenway in Northwest Arkansas, completed in May, is a 37-mile bike and pedestrian trail that snakes its way through urban and rural environments in the picturesque Ozark Mountains. About 15 years in the making, the $38-million trail runs south from Bella Vista in Benton County to Fayetteville inWashington County, and ties togeth- er a broad crosscut of the community of 500,000 people. While it’s certainly not the only trail in the Unit- ed States, the Greenway is seen as a one-of-a-kind because of how it was funded, where it goes, and how it gets there. Erin Rushing, a senior design as- sociate with Alta Planning + Design , the firm that designed the trail, explains why the trail is like no other. “The Razorback Greenway is unique because it connects six different cities across two coun- ties,” he says. “This connection links together 23 public schools, the University of Arkansas, three hospitals, three Fortune 500 companies (Wal- Mart Stores Inc., Tyson Foods Inc., and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.), over 2,300 commercial
businesses, and 150,000 residents who live within a mile of the trail.” Funding came from the Northwest Arkansas Re- gional Planning Commission and at least four cit- ies. But the overwhelming majority came from the U.S. Department of Transportation, with $15 mil- lion, and the Walton Family Foundation, also with $15 million. Noting the years of planning, the funding, the co- ordination among cities, and the single vision of stakeholders, Rushing had this to say about the planning process, which began in 2000. “It took an incredible amount of coordination and cooperation among all the communities to come together to get this project completed,” he says. “This was also a great example of how the private and public sectors can partner together for a com- mon goal to benefit their local communities.” Environmental concerns did not play a big role in the trail’s construction. The majority of the trail’s new sections were built along existing street corri- dors or within drainage areas along streams, which were previously designed to limit or avoid any en- vironmentally sensitive areas, Rushing says. Where See GREENWAY, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 16, 2015, ISSUE 1128
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