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Once the Brandywine-to-Tyvola segment is done, the Cross Charlotte Trail will be open from Pineville to NoDa. "That’s the best news I’ve heard today,” Huggins said with a smile. The trail, in its entirety, runs along with Little Sugar Creek from Brandywine Road at the north end of the city down to Tyvola Road in the southern portion. Shortly after passing the right-hand turn for the well-under-construction offshoot that eventually will take LSCG greenway-goers to the South Carolina State Line (it’s set to open later this spring), we ran into another dead end at the Polk home in Pineville. The next 6 miles — which run from just north of Park Road Park to underneath I-485 (behind Carolina Pavilion on South Boulevard), then all the way down to the President James K. Polk State Historic Site in Pineville — have a lot going for them.
Cross Charlotte Trail Segment 1: South Charlotte Connector - charlottenc.gov
Cross Charlotte Trail Segment 1: South Charlotte Connector.
Posted: Tue, 23 May 2023 14:40:00 GMT [source]
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The 0.3-mile-long trail creates a connection between the popular Park Road Park and the greenway system that makes up the Cross Charlotte Trail. “The park road portion, that can be really difficult connecting to the different parks,” Leneave added. “The connector is a game-changer for long-distance runners like me who need places to train. Having a dedicated path away from traffic is a huge benefit, and it opens up access between two large greenway systems. Now people won’t have to drive as far to get in a long run,” said Franklin Keathley, a member of the board of directors for the Charlotte Running Club.
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Once completed, XCLT will officially be the longest paved biking trail in North Carolina – you’ll be able to ride seamlessly from one end of Mecklenburg County to the other. The longest current trail is the American Tobacco Trail extending 22 miles from Durham to down to Wake County. This signature 31-mile greenway traversing Mecklenburg County is the epicenter of the Carolina Thread Trail and is critical to advancing regional trail development. The Cross Charlotte Trail is being completed through a partnership between the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
City council expects the entire Cross Charlotte Trail to take roughly three to four years for completion. Creating more Cross Charlotte Trail continuity is speeding up after many were shocked in 2019 to learn the major project was underfunded by $77 million. To celebrate the opening of the South Charlotte Connector, the City is encouraging users to snap a selfie on the trail using the hashtag #XCLT on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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While the Cross Charlotte Trail is one part of the greater Thread Trail network of trails and greenways, we have a stake in ensuring this continuous greenway is built as promised and planned. The Cross Charlotte Trail will be a 30-mile-long trail through Mecklenburg County that expands Charlotte's greenways. We’ve pulled together details and an interactive map to show you its planned route, offer updates on which segments are built or under construction, and detail plans for future segments. Use the arrows to navigate from the southwestern end of the trail south of Pineville and continue all the way to the Cabarrus County line.
Little Sugar Creek is more river-sized than creek-sized here, and seems clearer and cleaner along this path than it does closer to the city. The path itself is smooth, still-fairly-fresh asphalt, about 10 feet wide the entire way. There’s nothing resembling a hill, and in fact, if you’re going north to south, you’re very gently descending the whole time along with the flow of the creek.
The acceleration of construction along the trail will ultimately allow people like Bollinger and Leneave to keep challenging themselves to go as far as they choose. Much of the challenge for people like Bollinger and trail runner Carlin Leneave are places where the Cross Charlotte Trail abruptly ends, such as on the edge of Cordelia Park at North Davidson Street. That’s especially true near Cordelia Park in northeast Charlotte, which straddles the Plaza Midwood and NoDa neighborhoods. “The project was finished months ahead of schedule and we are thrilled to offer this new amenity for the community to use, especially during this challenging time,” said Imad Fakhreddin, senior engineering project manager. For more background on the project, we encourage you to read this article in the Charlotte Observer and Sustain Charlotte’s explanation of the situation.
“I run about 50 miles a week, and I cycle about 200 miles a week,” Bollinger said. He says the best workouts happen when he has an unfettered, free range of trails, paved walkway and greenways. “I’ve just become accustom to figuring out what the perfect out and back is,” he said. Learn more about this and other segments of the Cross Charlotte Trail at charlottefuture.com/xclt. The 30-mile-long pathway is part of Charlotte’s strategic mobility plan; investing in multimodal travel options that promote health and sustainability.
Cross Charlotte Trail Segments
Presently, however, that segment is still in the design phase. So if you go looking for it — like Charlotte Observer visual journalist Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez and I did — you’ll find a labyrinthine subdivision, an apartment complex, maybe a Walmart. Target completion dates on at least one section are three years away. There are wayfinding guides up to help people get to the SouthPark Loop and the Cross Charlotte Trail, according to the city. Click here to see complete map of the trail, including which sections are complete and what has yet to be done.
At this point, logistical issues were starting to become a hindrance. I floated the idea of taking surface streets for 6 miles to get to the next completed part of the XCLT in NoDa, but with little conviction. One, there’s not yet any signage (on this side of the street, anyway) indicating that the greenway continues on from here. An asphalt path off to the left heads up UCity Boulevard but leads nowhere. Across the street, the only thing in sight, really, is cookie-cutter development in the form of a Dunkin Donuts, an Arby’s, a Starbucks, an Orangetheory, etc. The day is coming when the massive City of Charlotte/Mecklenburg County project known as the Cross Charlotte Trail (aka the XCLT) will seamlessly string together several greenways to create a looong, winding, 30-plus mile route from University City to Piper Glen.
And, city council just approved the start of construction on a third section. (News Release) — The City of Charlotte has completed a new trail connecting the McMullen/McAlpine/Four Mile Creek Greenway system to the Cross Charlotte Trail (XCLT) and Little Sugar Creek Greenway. The .75-mile-long trail, called the South Charlotte Connector, runs parallel to I-485 between McMullen Creek and Park Road near the Pineville City Limit. It features a boardwalk system and bridge over McMullen Creek near Charlotte Water’s McAlpine Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant. The trail expands access to the Cross Charlotte Trail by approximately six miles and to thousands of users.
Longer-term, the county still hopes to connect those two points via trail. I feel like I have to blame the maintainer of the XCLT map on the City of Charlotte’s website for this one. If you look at it (which I did, closely and several times, in the Polk parking lot), you’ll see green all the way from Tyvola to Rea Road. Green corresponds to “Cross Charlotte Trail Existing” in the map key. But I found zero evidence of the continuation of a trail, anywhere.
In all, there are 11 segments of trail, stretching 30 miles from Pineville all the way to Cabarrus County. The newest section of trail is just over a mile and a half, but officials say it fills a critical gap, completely connecting an 18-mile stretch between NoDa and the South Carolina state line. The trail combines transportation options with recreation amenities as a way to encourage residents to drive less and exercise more. The long-term project is a collaborative effort between Charlotte city government and Mecklenburg County government.
— Cyclists, walkers and runners will one day have 26 miles of uninterrupted trail that will span Mecklenburg County, from the Cabarrus County line all the way to the South Carolina border. But construction to connect the Cross Charlotte Trail has been bumpy, to say the least. The trail is part of Charlotte’s strategic mobility plan to make areas of Charlotte more accessible. The Queen City's greenways are a space to get active but they're also designed to connect residents to restaurants, shops, and offices. The current interim plan involves installing “continuous sidewalk for that whole distance.” That is tentatively scheduled to be completed by mid-2024.
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