As work continues to extend the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail along Laurens Road from Pleasantburg Drive to Verdae Boulevard, the City of Greenville is looking ahead to other potential trail projects.

“We need to have several trails in the pipeline,” said City Councilwoman Amy Ryberg Doyle. “We should be doing 1 to 2 miles per year.”

Paving is expected to begin in January on the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail extension from Pleasantburg Drive to Verdae Boulevard. Greenville County is overseeing construction of the project, and the city is pitching in $2.5 million to build bridges across Laurens Road, Haywood Road, and Verdae Boulevard. The trail will go under Pleasantburg Drive.

Edward Kinney, senior landscape architect for the city and coordinator of the city’s bike efforts, said Greenville’s 2012 bike master plan proposed on-street bike lanes linking Laurens Road to Haywood Mall, but that is not feasible because of traffic and the existing engineering of Haywood Road.

NEW TRAIL 1: A potential parallel route using existing sewer easements could connect the new Laurens Road section of the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail to Pelham Road, Kinney said. The Laurel Creek trail would be Americans with Disabilities Act compatible, and it would have a grade of under 5 percent along the entire way. The route would have up to three street crossings and up to three pedestrian bridges. Kinney said a feasibility and preliminary engineering study would cost $85,000 and take nine to 12 months to complete.

If it is constructed, the just under 1-mile-long trail could eventually reach residents of the apartment complexes near Haywood Mall and the Fluor campus all the way to Travelers Rest.

NEW TRAIL 2: A second potential trail project would connect Cleveland Park to the new bridge over Laurens Road that is being built as part of the Laurens Road GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail extension. That connector would provide multiple ways for people to get to Cleveland Park, City Manager John Castile said. The city has spent $1,500 on an internal feasibility study and would need to do an engineering feasibility study, Kinney said.

NEW TRAIL 3: Work to create the Sliding Rock Mountain Bike Trail, a natural surface trail adjacent to Nicholtown, is proceeding, Kinney said. SORBA adopted the project in 2013, and the city wrote a letter of support for a grant application. Kinney said SORBA presented its plan to the Nicholtown Community Association in August and received unanimous approval for it. As soon as a memorandum of understanding between the city and SORBA is finalized outlining SORBA’s role in the construction and maintenance of the trail, construction can begin, Kinney said. The city will contribute amenities at the trailhead.

The city will conduct a preliminary, in-house feasibility study of turning a city-owned abandoned rail line that runs from Washington Street to McDaniel Avenue into a trail. The trail could serve as a secondary bike route for those in the Washington and McDaniel area and provide a secondary zoo entrance, Kinney said. In addition, the trail could provide additional zoo parking access. The feasibility study will look at grade, secondary zoo entrance dynamics, and approaches to Washington and McDaniel.

And finally, the city will conduct feasibility studies on creating protected bike lanes on Townes and Richardson streets, West Washington Street, McBee Avenue, and Pendleton Street.

The city currently has one protected bike lane on Broad Street from South Main to Falls streets. Protected bike lanes separate bicycle traffic from vehicular traffic by using curbs, bollards, planters, parked cars, and paint.