Albany revives long-discussed Chehaw Connector with $2M-$4M trail options

ALBANY — A long-planned trail connecting downtown Albany to Chehaw Park is moving closer to reality, with city commissioners preparing to choose between two potential routes for the roughly 1.1-mile link at preliminary costs ranging from $2 million to $4 million.

The Albany City Commission is expected to vote Tuesday on which option the city should pursue as it develops an application for the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program, administered by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

The project would close the remaining gap between Cox Landing, where the existing Riverfront Trail ends, and Chehaw Park, creating a continuous multi-use recreational corridor from downtown Albany to one of the region’s largest recreational destinations.

“This would be a regional asset,” Planning and Development Services Director Paul Forgey told commissioners. “As you know, we are working on a plan and improvements for the Riverfront Trail, so this would be a continuation of those improvements. We talked about Cox Landing improvements at the last meeting.”

It is a connection local officials and trail advocates have envisioned for about a decade.

The 2016 Flint River Trails Master Plan, developed by Atlanta-based Kaizen Collaborative, identified the Chehaw connection as a priority segment. The plan envisioned an approximately 1.1-mile connection between Cox Landing and Chehaw and identified Philema Road as the principal barrier between the existing trail and the park.

The project remains unfunded, but work by Robert and Company has since advanced conceptual alignments, crossing options and planning-level costs.

The Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program could provide a significant portion of the money needed to finally build it.

“If you would like to pursue this funding, there is up to $3 million available with a 3-to-1 match,” Forgey said. “That means the city would be required to match the $3 million with $1 million if we applied for the maximum amount available.”

The grant program allows requests of $500,000 to $3 million, with applicants required to provide at least 25% of the total project cost. The pre-application deadline is Oct. 16.

The less expensive option would follow the south side of Philema Road, largely along existing city easements, before crossing the roadway near the Chehaw Park entrance.

The preliminary estimate for that alternative is $2 million — $1.5 million for the connector and a $500,000 allowance for improvements at Cox Landing and Chehaw. Under the city’s current funding scenario, Albany would seek $1.5 million from GOSP and provide a $500,000 local match.

Its primary drawback is the crossing.

“The issue with this route is it would require an at-grade crossing into Chehaw Park,” Forgey said. “It would basically be a crosswalk across Philema Road.”

Forgey said the crossing would likely include some type of signal, potentially a HAWK signal — a pedestrian-activated flashing traffic control device.

“That would certainly provide some element of safety, but it would require people to cross Philema Road at grade,” he said.

The alternative would take the trail along the north side of Philema Road and use an elevated underpass connection at the bridge, eliminating the need for pedestrians and cyclists to cross Philema at street level.

Concept drawings show the trail looping beneath the roadway near the bridge before rising and continuing east toward Chehaw.

That alternative carries a substantially higher preliminary price tag: $4 million, including a $3.5 million connector allowance and $500,000 for improvements at Cox Landing and Chehaw.

Under the maximum funding scenario, the city would seek the full $3 million GOSP grant and provide a $1 million local match.

Forgey told commissioners the additional expense could make for a stronger grant application.

“I think it would be more fundable, but possibly cost twice as much, and we would have to go and get all the easements along the north side of Philema Road,” he said.

The tradeoff, Forgey said, is a route that completely separates trail users from traffic on Philema.

The estimates remain preliminary. Robert and Company cautions that the final scope, eligible costs and funding amounts remain subject to refinement and DNR review, with contingencies included for unresolved costs.

City documents identify T-SPLOST I as the anticipated source of Albany’s local match.

Commissioner Chad Warbington asked whether sufficient money remains in the applicable T-SPLOST funds to cover either alternative.

“We’ve got funds for either option, is my understanding,” Warbington said.

The proposal represents the latest effort to complete a connection that has repeatedly appeared in Albany’s long-range trail plans.

The original 2016 master plan similarly placed a premium on keeping trail users separated from traffic on Philema Road. Both alternatives evaluated at the time were designed to negotiate the roadway without an at-grade crossing.

The Albany Herald highlighted the Chehaw connection as one of the most important pieces of the broader Flint River Trails System, which local officials envisioned eventually linking recreational assets across Albany and Dougherty County and extending into neighboring counties.

“The question has always been, how do we extend the trail across (busy) Philema Road from Cox Landing?” Spencer Lee, a Friends of the Flint River Trails board member, told the Herald in 2018. “Well, the folks who worked on the master plan came up with the solution. We don’t go across Philema, we go under it.”

The city renewed its focus on the project in September 2024 when it hired Atlanta-based Robert and Company to evaluate improvements to the Riverfront Trail and study potential connections to Chehaw.

By August 2025, the consultant had developed conceptual alternatives for navigating the difficult area around Lake Worth and the Philema Road bridge. At the time, Robert and Company told commissioners the overall Riverfront Trail planning effort was about one-quarter complete and discussed potential improvements including exercise stations, signage, observation decks and nature-trail amenities.

The project remains conceptual. A preferred alignment has not been finalized, and the city’s authorization package says the final project scope, alignment, budget, site control, matching funds and formal grant resolution would return to commissioners before submission.