East Roanoke River Greenway Gap, City of Roanoke to the Blue Ridge Parkway

Community Meeting

A community meeting was held on June 30, 2022, at the Explore Park Visitor Center to review and discuss preliminary greenway alignments for the area between the Western Virginia Water Authority Water Pollution Control Plant and the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

Nearly 70 people attended the meeting to view the exhibits, to complete a survey and talk about the project with Roanoke County, City of Roanoke and VDOT staff. 

The survey closed on July 15 and 380 responses were received.

Overview

What is going on?

The Roanoke River Greenway is an important regional project that will eventually run over 30 miles along the Roanoke River linking Montgomery County to Explore Park. As a part of this regional greenway, we are evaluating how best to route the greenway from the Western Virginia Water Authority Water Pollution Control Plant to the Blue Ridge Parkway.                  

Funding 

There is no funding for this project at this time.  

Next Steps

Roanoke County is collaborating with VDOT to determine a project scope to submit a SMART SCALE grant application in August 2022. The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) will hold public hearings on the Six Year Improvement Program, which will include SMART SCALE projects proposed for funding, in Spring 2023. In June 2023, the CTB will adopt the final Six Year Improvement Program, which will include funding programmed over six years for selected SMART SCALE projects.