GAI developed the design for the Kanawha Trestle Walk and Bikeway System for the City of Charleston, West Virginia. The system includes the addition of a two-lane bikeway and green strip along the south side of Kanawha Boulevard that reaches from Pennsylvania Avenue to the Patrick Street Bridge underpass (approximately 1.8 miles). The bikeway and green strip were constructed between the existing asphalt walking path and the south curb of the roadway. To provide the necessary space for these additions, the existing grass median was removed from the center of Kanawha Boulevard. One automobile lane along the roadway was also removed, reducing the number of automobile lanes from four to three, thereby encouraging safer and slower driving speeds.

When conceptualizing this project, the City wanted to incorporate stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) into the design. The existing project area comprised of 92% impervious surfaces; although GAI’s design removed the existing grass median on Kanawha Boulevard, the addition of the green strip on the south side of Kanawha Boulevard, a planted median from Pennsylvania Avenue to Delaware Avenue, and the expansion of an existing greenspace at First Avenue resulted in a 4,000-sf net increase of pervious surfaces (i.e., greenspace). The new green strip was designed to capture and infiltrate a large portion of stormwater from the adjacent roadway and conduct it through a series of bioretention cells and swales.

The overall design of the Kanawha Trestle Walk and Bikeway System improves the roadway aesthetically and functionally, while demonstrating the use of innovative stormwater BMPs and compliance with the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permitting required by the City for all new and redeveloped projects, in order to minimize impervious area and promote stormwater infiltration.