"This greenway provides children and their parents a safer route to Bearden Elementary and makes bus service more accessible for residents," Mayor Bill Haslam said. "This project will also make the Bearden community more pedestrian friendly by providing safe paths and sidewalks that connect the Westwood and Forest Park neighborhoods to businesses on Sutherland Avenue and Kingston Pike."

The project's first phase - now complete - includes a greenway from Bearden Elementary School to Sutherland Avenue and along Sutherland to Forest Park Boulevard. Connections to Kingston Pike along Westwood Drive and Mohican Street are also complete.

Work on the second phase, which extends the greenway to West High School and Toblar Lane, is expected to be finished in late summer.

The project was bid under one contract that included utility design and construction work to minimize traffic delays and congestion. Southern Constructors was awarded the $3.3 million project, which included $1.5 million in utility design and construction funded by KUB.