Inverness Greenway Project
 An engineering study has helped clear the way for the first phase of Inverness Community Greenway, a trail for walkers and bikers that will make a loop through neighborhoods off Valleydale Road, officials said.
Shelby County Manager Alex Dudchock said the recently completed corridor feasibility study showed no major obstacles to the 1.8-mile route of the greenway's first phase, which starts at Valleydale Road and mostly parallels the route of Inverness Parkway.
Dudchock said it's usually hard to plan a trail route through an established neighborhood because of problems with rights of way, utility easements and other concerns.
"In this case, it appears we have a very good chance to work through getting phase one done," Dudchock said.
Dudchock said it's too early to predict a construction schedule, except that it would be within two or three years.
The Inverness Community Greenway has been planned for more than a year. It is expected to be a joint effort of Shelby County and the city of Hoover.
Most of the planned greenway is in Hoover and will be part of a route that will eventually link Veterans Park on Valleydale Road with an 80-acre nature park the city of Hoover plans to develop in Inverness.
"This is an incredible plan because it ties two major parks together with the greenway," Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos said.
Part of the route between the two parks will be six-foot-wide sidewalks that will be included in a project to widen Valleydale Road. The greenway, as described in the engineering study, will be 10 feet wide with an asphalt surface, although the width and surface could vary.
Shelby County paid Gresham Smith and Partners, an engineering company, $37,500 for the corridor feasibility study. The 133-page report includes cost estimates, detailed maps and recommendations on how to best obtain federal funding and community support for the greenway.
The full, 3.3-mile loop from Valleydale Road through Inverness would cost an estimated $1.65 million, although Dudchock said that could change. The long-range plan calls for trail spurs that would extend to U.S. 280.
Dudchock said the next step is to develop preliminary engineering plans and prepare bid proposals for construction. He said the county expects to pay Gresham Smith and Partners about $96,000 to prepare those documents, which will be submitted to the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization in an effort to get federal funding to pay for 80 percent of the construction.
"We wouldn't be pursuing this unless there was a high probability of getting the federal funds," Dudchock said.
Dudchock and Petelos said they expect to have discussions about the city and county sharing the cost of the 20 percent match.
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