New Albany to start on greenway

By Matt Batcheldor
mbatcheldor@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Work on New Albany's portion of the $41 million Ohio River Greenway is to begin next month using a $1.2 million state grant the city received yesterday.

It will mark the city's first construction on an eventual seven-mile recreational path extending from New Albany to Jeffersonville.

Mayor James Garner said a contractor for the project will be chosen next week. Garner has spent this week in Indianapolis trying to expedite the grant before a Sept. 30 deadline for federal matching dollars.

If the deadline passed without the grant, the project would be delayed for a year.

"We're really at the wire for getting this done," Garner said. "It's a great feeling to walk away with the check to say the project's going to happen."

With the matching federal money, the first phase of the project will get $2.4 million. New Albany has already spent about $250,000 and the Caesars Foundation contributed $240,000 for engineering and design work.

The first phase of the path will stretch from the riverfront amphitheater to just past 6th Street, chief planner Scott Wood said. The path will run both atop the earthen levee and on both sides of Water Street until the levee ends and a concrete floodwall begins. Then the levee path will head down a ramp to join the Water Street paths.

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