Forsyth County advances Big Creek Greenway redesign for safety, durability

Walkers, cyclists and nearby residents still cannot use the Big Creek Greenway between Bethelview Trailhead and Kelly Mill Road, where a roughly 1.9-mile section remains closed as Forsyth County pushes ahead with a full redesign of the aging boardwalk. County officials said the work is meant to solve a safety problem, not just patch a trail that sees heavy daily use.

Forsyth County Parks & Recreation Director Kirk Franz and Capital Projects Director John Jefferson said the project is now in the design and engineering phase, with environmental permitting, material evaluation and coordination with nearby infrastructure improvements all underway. The county said it chose a progressive design-build approach so the designer and contractor could work together from the start on efficiency and cost control. The design-build team was selected through the county’s Qualifications Based Selection procurement process.

The renovation carries a $33 million price tag and is being funded through SPLOST IX, the county’s voter-approved 1% sales and use tax. County SPLOST materials list Big Creek Greenway Repairs among the parks and recreation projects under that program, underscoring that this is a major capital investment rather than routine maintenance.

Phase 4 closed in fall 2024 after safety concerns surfaced around the aging boardwalk structure. Forsyth County chose a full redesign instead of short-term fixes, and officials said the rebuilt Greenway will use an improved elevated boardwalk design with a steel substructure. The county says that approach is intended to better withstand wetland conditions and cut future maintenance and repairs.

A half-mile section north of Bethelview Trailhead has already reopened after boardwalk repairs, but the larger closure still runs from mile marker 8.5 at Bethelview Trailhead to mile marker 10.3 at Kelly Mill Road. County materials say as much as 15 miles of the Big Creek Greenway are used daily by walkers, runners and bikers, which helps explain why every closure has a visible effect on recreation and commuting-style trail traffic. County officials said reopening the temporary closure this summer would bring nearly 17 miles of Greenway back into service.

The current work fits into a broader pattern of repairs along the corridor. In 2021, Forsyth County said repairs replaced nearly 1,000 linear feet of decking and substructure in two separate areas. More recently, the county announced a Feb. 25, 2026 closure from Fowler Park north to the Bethelview Trailhead as the next renovation phase began, and it closed a smaller segment at mile marker 5.1 to 5.2 on May 5, 2025 for boardwalk replacement and trailhead access improvements. For now, the county’s message is clear: the inconvenience is real, but so is the payoff it is promising, a more durable trail system built for long-term use.