Guilford County weighs funding for Piedmont Regional Greenway design work

Guilford County commissioners took up funding May 7 for the design and engineering work that would move the Piedmont Regional Greenway closer to construction, with the Triad Park section emerging as the key early step in a 19-mile regional trail.

The discussion centered on the Triad Park/Reedy Fork segment, an estimated 3.6-mile stretch that already secured a $500,000 Great Trails State Program grant in August 2025 for planning work. The grant went to the Piedmont Triad Regional Council in partnership with Guilford County, Forsyth County and the Town of Kernersville, but local money is still needed to finish the design work that would turn the idea into a buildable project.

The larger vision reaches far beyond a single trail segment. The Piedmont Greenway is planned as a paved, shared-use path linking Greensboro and Winston-Salem through Triad Park and the communities of Summerfield, Oak Ridge and Kernersville. County and city materials place about 11 miles of the route in Guilford County and about 8 miles in Forsyth County, with eventual connections to downtown Winston-Salem, Kernersville, Greensboro and High Point.

That scale is why supporters frame the project as more than a recreational amenity. They see it as a transportation connector that could give walkers, runners, cyclists and commuters a safer, continuous route between neighborhoods, parks, commercial centers and other daily destinations. In a county where residents already move across jurisdiction lines for work, school and shopping, the greenway could become a practical link as much as a weekend destination.

The first beneficiaries would likely be people closest to the Triad Park and Reedy Fork corridor, where design funding would determine how quickly the project can move toward construction. A finished greenway could also strengthen the appeal of nearby areas for future investment and redevelopment, particularly around growing communities such as Kernersville, Oak Ridge and Summerfield.

The project has been described by local officials and trail advocates as a regional backbone for outdoor recreation, public health and economic development. For Guilford County, the decision now is whether to keep the momentum moving from state-funded planning toward the first shovels in the ground.