A Huntsville greenway started in 2005 now connects two popular downtown gathering spots.

The Gateway Greenway was recently extended under the Washington Street bridge to Veterans Memorial Park, allowing people to walk or jog between there and Bud Cramer Park off Meridian Street.

Gateway Greenway now connects Bud Cramer Park with Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Huntsville. (Courtesy of Google Maps)

The roughly half-mile-long, paved trail passes the Historic Huntsville Depot and A.M. Booth's Lumberyard.

As part of the project, the city transformed unremarkable Five Points Ditch into a pretty, gurgling creek lined with river rock, a metal bridge and steps leading down to the water.

Crews from Midsouth Paving are adding the finishing touches now by paving a city-owned gravel lot at the corner of Meridian Street and Cleveland Avenue.

When finished, the lot will have 137 parking spaces, heavy landscaping and decorative lighting to match the street lamps along the greenway. It will serve greenway users as well as the growing collection of businesses around the Meridian-Cleveland intersection.

City Engineer Kathy Martin said Midsouth Paving, which is being paid $411,595, should be finished with the parking lot improvements by late spring.

Martin told AL.com Monday that the city would eventually like to extend Gateway Greenway north from Bud Cramer Park under Interstate 565 to Dallas Branch, site of another future greenway.