Glow for a walk: Upgrades to section of Elizabeth River Trail will make the path light up in the dark
The segment of the Elizabeth River Trail that passes through the Jeff Robertson Park in Norfolk will soon light up the night for commuters and other trail-goers.
The Elizabeth River Trail Foundation is replacing aging asphalt — which wasn’t graded properly and was plagued by pooling water — with glow stones that will absorb sunlight throughout the day, then glow at night, without any electricity.
“It’s not just an amenity, it’s great that it’s beautiful and it’s magical, but we also took an 8-foot asphalt path at the end of it’s life and we’re now making it a 12-foot concrete path that will get a lot more use,” said Kindra Greene, executive director of the foundation.
This 825-foot section, called the Glowline, will be completed this fall at a cost of roughly $394,000, according to Mel Price, chair of the foundation’s Master Planning Committee. The glowing portions will be in the shape of fiddlehead fern leaves, which grow naturally at the Weyanoke Bird and Wildflower Sanctuary in the park.
The Glowline is part of an effort to draw attention to the 10.5-mile trail ahead of a series of expansions and improvements the foundation will take on in the coming years, some of which will require additional funding.
Price, an architect by trade, said this portion of the trail is one of its darkest areas of the ERT, and the shift from a well-lit area can be jarring, causing people’s pupils to dilate and creating discomfort. Many are fearful of walking through unlit spaces. and Price said the Glowline will help smooth that transition.
“There’s a lot of people who want to use it for recreation or to commute to work, and many folks work different hours, not 9 to 5′s,” Price said. “We wanted to make sure it felt welcoming and safe at all hours of the day.”
The ERT project was inspired by a similar project in the Netherlands. The fern stencils used to create the Glowline pattern were made by Greene and a group of volunteers, at least partly in Price’s backyard. He saw the project as a way to bring excitement to the trail and awareness to upcoming expansions aimed at connecting the area’s best features.
“It’s not the fastest way to get from one place to another but it’s a place where, if you have family and friends in town that if you’re trying to show them Norfolk, it’s a really great way to show off the diversity of our city and feel that connection with the water,” Price said.
More information about the Glowline will be shared at the Urban Land Institute’s Elizabeth River Trail GLOW Walking Tour in the second of what will be a quarterly speaker series. The free tour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday starting in Jeff Robertson Park at 1509 Armistead Bridge Road in Norfolk.
A recent Norfolk Parks and Recreation survey found that walkable areas and general connectivity of the city were residents’ top requests, which are guiding the foundation’s future investments.
“We do great with baseball fields and we have a lot of small recreation centers, but we don’t have a lot of things connecting those parts together,” Price said. “Especially I think with the pandemic where people just started walking their neighborhoods, (more trails) seems to be something that anyone of any age can use.”
The improvements to the existing trail will be funded by about $4 million in private investment, including $500,000 from Sentara and the city of Norfolk, according to Price. The city has also committed about $120,000 in the new budget to help with repairs.
Construction on two new trailheads, which are amenity-packed areas that include a parking area, will begin this year with the Norfolk State University trailhead near the intersection of Park Avenue and Brambleton Avenue, and the Larchmont Library trailhead right behind the library on Hampton Boulevard. In the coming years, the foundation is looking to expand the trail east to connect with the light rail station on Newtown Road, right on the Virginia Beach city limit, and to construct “tributaries” of the trail leading into underserved communities, according to Price.
“We have folks in our community who have not experienced some of the best parts of the city and the trail is a thing that can kind of connect the neighborhoods, job opportunities, health, and all of that,” Price said. ”We think if we do it right it has the opportunity to have a really positive effect on peoples’ lives and help businesses grow.”
Gavin Stone, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com
