Tide-to-Town enters 2024 with wave of momentum. Here is the project's outlook

Tide-to-Town (TTT) is one of the city's most ambitious projects, which has a 5-year planned budget of nearly $19 million. Those who support the project point to an influx of hotel-motel tax revenues, budgeted at $10 million over the next two years, as a sustained funding source for the trail network.

The City of Savannah received three bids on a request for proposals (RFP) at the end of last year for construction on the project's next phase of the Truman Linear Park Trail. The bids came after a previous RFP for the phase received no bids. City Council will likely vote on the construction contract within the coming months.

Not long before that RFP closed, the city also for the first time hired a full-time project manager for TTT. Tina Bockhold, a civil engineer with a decade of experience at the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and Chatham County's traffic department, will oversee future design and construction on the 30-plus mile network of trails and shared-use paths.

Now, with a full-time project manager and construction for the next phase looming, TTT is moving with momentum in 2024.

"For decades and decades, cities used to block and use walls and highways to divide neighborhoods," said District 4 Alderman Nick Palumbo. "This is the ultimate silo buster that brings them all together."

Next steps for planned 30-mile trail network

One day in early December, Palumbo sat next to his electric bike on a portion of the Truman Linear Park Trail, right next to the fields at Scarborough Sports Complex. This portion of TTT is lined with recently planted Camellias, rooted to beautify the trail, each one tagged with the number in which it was planted.

The bike was Palumbo's own prototype, one he built and calls the M500. He took it for a 15-minute spin from his Midtown home to the complex that day. "[The trail] is a lot faster than anybody thinks that it is, and we're so much closer than we ever anticipated."

The Scarborough Sports Complex sits off a stretch of the trail that runs from DeRenne Avenue to Lake Mayer. The phase set for construction this year, known as Truman Linear Park Trail Phase 2b, will connect from Lake Mayer to the Police Memorial Trail, which winds from Daffin Park to 52nd Street.

Bockhold, the project manager, said she estimates construction on the connector will begin mid-year. Once connected, the entirety of the Truman Trail will span 6 miles, connecting 800 acres of greenspace and 18 neighborhoods, according to city statistics.

Bockhold said another goal for 2024 is to create the design for a future phase of the project along Middleground Road, near Georgia Southern's Armstrong campus. The city issued an RFQ for design in November 2023, and the request closed on Jan. 10 with six bids.

There are two more phases undergoing long-term planning, one for Heritage Trail in the Canal District and another on Montgomery Crossroad. The end goal is a 30-plus mile core loop around Savannah.

"It means people from ages and abilities, and all neighborhoods can get from where they are to where they need to be with safety and dignity," said Caila Brown, executive director of Bike Walk Savannah and longtime Tide-to-Town advocate.

Accessibility to green spaces and safe walking paths offers mental and physical health benefits

Palumbo, along with TTT advocates such as Brown and Friends of Tide-to-Town chair Armand Turner, say Savannah's network could be more than just trails. Brown said she hopes the network will become a "destination."

Amenities such as water fill stations and bike fix centers along stretches of the trail could bring it closer to that vision, Brown said.

"Build that trail segment as a place to be, rather than just a place to go through," Brown said. "I think that will continue to grow as we have more segments added to the trail."

Palumbo said Savannah has the benefit of being "late to the game," which allows it to learn from other urban trail networks. A popular and common example in-state is the Atlanta Beltline, which spurred retail and residential development along its corridor.

Turner, the physical activity program manager for Healthy Savannah, said he hopes the trail network will connect residents to grocery stores. "It's all about connecting people to destinations, and those destinations just have to make sense with the neighborhoods," Turner said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers tips to local communities to increase physical activity, and specifically suggests urban design in terms of connectivity to trails and parks, as well as "everyday destinations" such as homes, schools and food are important to overall physical and mental health."

Beyond fostering good health, Brown said there are also economic benefits to a trail network such as TTT. For example, someone cruising on a trail by bike may see a restaurant and be more inclined to dip in due to its accessibility from the trail, Brown said.

"They are actually able to see things and appreciate things," Brown said.

Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah's tide-to-town network has wave of momentum.