Shonda Bolton exercises on new trail and bridge (in background) leading from Georgia Perimeter's Decatur Campus. (photo by Bill Roa)
GPC professor Melody Durrenberger leads a group of students on a walk across new PATH bridge. (photo by Bill Roa)
GPC's Rick Bertaccini and Bill Roa met up with this deer on their walk on the PATH trail. (photo by Bill Roa)
PATH Foundation cuts trail through Decatur Campus
Georgia Perimeter College’s Decatur Campus is getting connected to the South River Trail System, bringing the entire South DeKalb County community greater access to nature and fitness options.
Construction crews are gearing up for the final stretch of the project featuring a 3.1-mile, tree-lined concrete trail leading from the west side of Georgia Perimeter College’s Decatur Campus on Clifton Church Road and connecting to Gresham Park. The completed South River Trail System will stretch 5.5 miles from the Atlanta Radio Control Club on Constitution Road to GPC. Trailhead parking will be at Entrenchment Creek Trailhead on International Park Drive.
“I grew up riding horses through this property,” recalls Rick Bertaccini, the Georgia Perimeter facilities manager who has worked with Lewallen Construction and the PATH Foundation during the last 18 months to complete the $2.3 million federally funded DeKalb County project.
The trail’s development is part of the DeKalb County Master Plan created in 2000 under the leadership of PATH, a nonprofit group focused on developing interlinking greenway trails throughout metro Atlanta for commuting and recreation.
Jonathan McCaig, a PATH Foundation project manager, explains that this piece of the South River Trail System is funded through the Georgia Department of Transportation enhancement program and sponsored by DeKalb County and PATH. The project concept began in 2002 and received funding 10 years later, with construction finally beginning last year.
“PATH is excited about finishing this connection to Georgia Perimeter College,” McCaig says. “This piece gets the South River Trail System one step closer to connecting to the Atlanta Beltline and Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers. Only 11 miles are left to make the connection.”
The 3.1-mile trail connection to Georgia Perimeter includes a recently completed 260-foot boardwalk-styled bridge over Doolittle Creek. Crews removed the old staircase bridge earlier this summer. About 100 yards of GPC property is included in the previously wooded area along the South River.
The trail annex is welcome news to Deborah Walker who already takes daily walks through existing paved paths that weave through GPC’s Decatur Campus. “I think it’s wonderful,” she says. “It’s just so convenient.”
Project managers expect to cut the ribbon on the newest extension of the trail sometime in September 2015.