Greenway 'delayed a little'

Doug Appleyard, who lives off Ridge Road in Raleigh, writes: "It looks like they are clearing trees for the greenway stretch from Lake Boone Trail and Horton Road (which is just inside the Beltline) up to the Glen Eden overpass and beyond. But I am a bit doubtful because they are clearing north of Glen Eden on the inside of the Beltline, when I thought the greenway would intersect Glen Eden, then cross over the Beltline bridge to the Glen Eden Pilot Park, then continue north from there."

Alas, Doug, your doubt is well-founded.

"That's a sanitary sewer project," according to Vic Lebsock, Raleigh park and greenway planner. "The greenway will follow."

In fact, House Creek -- a 2.9-mile stretch of pavement that will form a crucial greenway link between the 14-mile Museum of Art/Reedy Creek/Black Creek Greenway and the 11-mile Crabtree Creek Greenway in North Raleigh -- has been delayed "a little."

"We've been working hard with [state Department of Transportation] on some trail alignments, control of access," Lebsock said. "We're very close." He now expects construction on the $1.5 million greenway to begin in late summer and take about a year.

Since Lebsock was on the phone, I got updates on two other projects in the works:

• Walnut Creek Greenway. Two stretches of greenway need to be completed before this greenway along a 6.5-mile stretch of Walnut Creek in South Raleigh -- from Worthdale Park on the east to Lake Wheeler Road on the west -- is done.

The first stretch is between Garner Road and South Wilmington Street. The finishing touches need to be applied to a bridge/boardwalk under a railroad trestle. That should be done in 30 days, Lebsock said.

The stretch from Prospect Avenue near Fayetteville Street is under construction and should open by May, according to Lebsock.

Eventually, the Walnut Creek Greenway will extend east from Worthdale Park to greenway along the Neuse River, and west from Lake Wheeler Road on planned greenway through N.C. State's Centennial Campus and on to existing greenway that leads to and around Lake Johnson.

• Boardwalk on Crabtree Creek Greenway just upstream from Capital Boulevard. No one seemed to appreciate just how popular the Crabtree Creek Greenway was until a key part of it was decommissioned in late summer. The decommissioning of an elevated boardwalk came after engineers determined the support structure was unsafe. That project, which had been expected to be done just after the first of the year, is also delayed.

"We needed to come up with a little more money than we expected," Lebsock said. The city has the money -- $216,000 -- it just needs to be moved from one pot to another, and that requires City Council approval. Lebsock expects that to happen in January.

The job is expected to take 60 days. Lebsock expects a late March/early April completion.

Anything else going on?

"We've got lots and lots of design projects in the works," he said. "Expect a lot of openings in 2009."

More indoor swimming

Of our Dec. 6 report on the new Triangle Aquatics center and the lack of indoor pools in the region, Patricia Nichols of Durham wrote to let us know about four more indoor pools, all on the west side of the Triangle:

• Edison Johnson Aquatic Center, 600 W. Murray Ave., Durham. 560-4265.
• Campus Hills Pool, 2000 S. Alston Ave., Durham. 560-4781.
• Chapel Hill Community Center pool, 120 S. Estes Drive, Chapel Hill. 968-2790. (Note: this pool recently reopened after being closed for renovation.)
• Triangle Sportsplex, One Dan Kidd Drive, Hillsborough. 644-0339, www.trianglesportsplex.com.

Thanks, Patricia.