Patton Park in Petersburg, where the ART could provide another crossing over the Appomattox. Image by Friends of the Lower Appomattox River used with permission.

This article was first published on November 5, 2019. Given the need for more recreational space, due to the pandemic, we wanted to share this piece with you again.

Health outcomes in Virginia’s Gateway Region, the southern half of the Richmond-Petersburg metropolitan area, lag behind those of the rest of the state. One organization hopes to help address this by finally completing a 22-mile multimodal path called the Appomattox River Trail (ART), which will give residents a safe place to walk, bicycle, and more.

One third of the ART has already been built, but the rest of it has been held up by a lack of funding from the under-resourced Tri-Cities area. Once it’s finished, the trail will stretch from Chesterfield County’s Lake Chesdin in the west along the river through Dinwiddie County, the City of Petersburg, Colonial Heights, Fort Lee, Prince George County, and end at City Point National Battlefield in Hopewell.

Here's where the ART will eventually extend. Image by Friends of the Lower Appomattox River used with permission.

Each locality has completed a portion of its share of the ART, but none of the six have completed their full stretch.

An opportunity to build healthier communities

Local conservation nonprofit Friends of the Lower Appomattox River (FOLAR) has been leading the charge to complete the trail. To build momentum, the organization has partnered with the Crater Health District to help regional- and state-level leaders understand the role such amenities can play in fostering a healthier populace.

“In the Gateway Region, we have poor health outcomes like diabetes and high blood pressure,” said Tiffany Carter, the Crater Health District’s Public Information Officer. “It may look like there are lots of opportunities for physical activity here, but our district reports lower than average physical activity.”

With funding from the Health District, FOLAR is currently installing trail counters at six points along the Appomattox to keep track of how many people are using it. Carter hopes the new monthly counts will support their mission to improve the health of residents in all six municipalities it runs through.

“Once completed, the Appomattox River Trail is going to be a great opportunity to increase physical activity in the region,” Carter said.

If the success of the Hopewell Riverwalk is any indication, then the trail may indeed prove transformative to the Gateway Region. Before the new waterfront boardwalk opened under Hopewell Mayor Jasmine Gore, the city’s primary park received an average of six visitors a day. Tallies since the grand opening in April show now more than 400 residents use this easternmost section of the ART every day.

“We built it and the people are coming,” said Heather Barrar, FOLAR’s Regional Trails Program Director.

The new Hopewell Riverwalk. Image by the author.

Hopewell’s riverwalk proved so popular in its first six months of use that its extension to the city marina has already been fully funded. It’s currently in the design stage, with an expected completion date in late 2020 or early 2021. A Transportation Alternatives Program grant from the Federal Highway Administration will pay to pave the bike lanes from the boardwalk in City Park to City Point, ART’s eastern terminus. That means Hopewell is on track to become the first locality to complete its section of the Appomattox River Trail.

The trail could serve as an important transportation link

In addition to the path’s contributions to the public health and livability of the area, Barrar believes the ART could become a vital transportation link for the Gateway Region.

“This amenity would be as much about transportation as it is about recreation. Down here we have high poverty, low car ownership, and lots of health problems. This is a free trail everyone will be able to use to get around, and that’s incredibly important in and around the Tri-Cities,” Barrar said.

Pedestrian bridges from Chesterfield to Dinwiddie at Radcliffe Park, from Petersburg’s Pocahontas Island to Colonial Heights, and under Temple Avenue from Colonial Heights to Prince George would be the crown jewels of the trail’s design. If the Ashland to Petersburg Trail (ATP) goes ahead, the ART could see another crossing of the Appomattox from the Virginia State University campus to Patton Park in Petersburg.

People walk along Colonial Heights' portion of the ART. Image by Friends of the Lower Appomattox River used with permission.

“I want everyone to have an opportunity to use the trail. One might think that only certain types of people would use a trail like this, but the design we chose will ensure the ART is open to everyone of all ages and levels of physical activity across the region. We want families, seniors, and young people all to feel welcome on the trail,” said Barrar.

What’s next for the trail?

The proposed alignment for the Ashland to Petersburg Trail was recently announced, including concrete construction plans along initial stretches of the trail. The enthusiasm across Central Virginia was so intense one could be mistaken for thinking it might soon be completed. However, if the Virginia Capital Trail is any indication, the ATP may not become a reality for another decade. The ART, on the other hand, could be done in half that time with the support of state-level decision makers and sufficient funding.

With the first third of the ART complete, the master plan envisions a divide and conquer strategy to finish the final phases. The next stage of construction—expected to be done within four years—would extend the trail from Colonial Heights’ paved portion by I-95 westward seven miles to Ferndale Park in Dinwiddie. The final stretch, the trickiest of the three, would complete the connection from Colonial Heights along Fort Lee and through Prince George to meet up with Hopewell’s boardwalk around I-295.

Each of the six localities as well as Fort Lee, the National Park Service, and the Gateway Region Economic Development Organization have put out resolutions of full support. That means the biggest challenge going forward is funding.

Barrar hopes the General Assembly will help provide the necessary funds to make the remainder of the Appomattox River Trail a reality. If legislators stitch together a dedicated transportation funding stream for Central Virginia this session as pundits expect, any sums earmarked for walk and bike improvements could help finance the trail.

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Tagged: bicycling, colonial heights, hopewell, pedestrians, petersburg, repost, richmond, virginia

Wyatt Gordon is the senior policy manager for land use and transportation at the Virginia Conservation Network, and an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Urban Planning. He's a born-and-raised Richmonder with a master's in Urban Planning from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a bachelor's in International Political Economy from American University.