‘Dirtways’ speed up trail construction in Mecklenburg

As runners and bikers flocked to Mecklenburg County’s 37-miles of greenway on the first warm weekend of the year, few thought about what goes into building those creek-side asphalt paths. Building paved greenways takes lots of two things – time and money. Planning, capital budgeting, engineering and environmental studies and, finally, construction can take a decade or more. In the end, a paved greenway costs about $1 million a mile on average, says Chris Matthews, division director of nature preserves and natural resources at Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department.

There had to be a quicker way. In a leadership class last year, Matthews and other Park and Recreation employees outlined a plan to add more trail space quickly and cheaply. While waiting for the paved greenways to be planned and built, the department could use some of its land already set aside for paved greenway extensions to clear natural surface trails. These “dirtways” should be a boon for the county’s runners and nature lovers, Matthews says, “as long as they don’t mind getting their feet dirty.”

The first of the dirtways opened last month in the Steele Creek area. The half-mile segment connects to the paved Walker Branch Greenway behind the Rivergate shopping center and the Walkers Creek subdivision. The extension, which includes two footbridges made of flat rock, cost about $5,000 in materials and staff time, Matthews says. The paved greenway extension in that area will likely not be complete until 2020.

Creating a bridge over the creek for the greenway would have required Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) permits, but the dirtway require only some discussion with the county’s Land Use and Environmental Services (LUESA) department and installing the stepping stones.

“We would have had to do all of this high-end modeling,” Matthews says. “Instead, we just had staff go out and place them (the stones).”

Crews are working on a second dirtway along McDowell Creek between Gilead and Beatties Ford roads in Huntersville. The department is in talks with other towns and neighborhoods about other potential projects, Matthews says.

The money comes from Parks and Recreation’s general operating budget, rather than the longer-term capital budget. Matthews says the department is looking for county-owned land that either connects with greenways or can accommodate a longer trail. With no dedicated budget for maintaining the dirtways, it helps to have neighborhood associations or other area groups committed to help keep the paths in decent shape. Park and Rec staff will do minor, periodic mowing on the Walker Branch dirtway, Matthews says.

“We really need to be careful,” Matthews says. “We don’t want to put in a bunch of short, 400-foot sections. If we can find a section that already has a little use on it, we can go and knock out a half-mile. It helps to have folks locally supportive. The challenge with us is that we don’t have staff that can maintain them.”