HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- For Marci Lyn Tyndall, the only active protection she has when cycling on roadways, beyond her helmet and safety gear, is a little bell the "brrnngss" rather quietly.
Since she enjoys biking from her home in Lakeside to work in downtown Richmond, she was thrilled to see Henrico County break ground on its portion of the Fall Line Trail.
"Something that weighs a ton can really mess up my life if something goes wrong!” Tyndall said. "You can give people more options, more freedom. . . People are driving to work because it’s safer. People aren’t walking or biking to work because it’s not safe.”
The Fall Line Trail is a long imagined, stand-alone trail that will serve as a "spine" for bikers and walkers in Central Virginia.
As planned, it will stretch 43 miles from Ashland in the north to Petersburg in the south.
It's designed to feel similar to the popular Virginia Capital Trail but will wind through a wider variety of urban and rural communities.
Wednesday, leaders with Henrico County, Sportsbackers, VDOT, and other project partners helped break ground on the Spring Park portion of the trail, the southernmost portion in the county that will connect the Fall Line Trail to Bryan Park.
"I mean this is going to be such a treasure for transportation. I really think it’s going to transform the region and help people get to work not just in this neighborhood but in the seven localities all along this travel," Tyndall said.
“Henrico’s portion is eight phases and will stretch 7.5 miles from Bryan Park all the way up to the Chichahominy River," Terrell Hughes, the director of Public Works for Henrico, said.
Hughes is spearheading the county's portion of the Fall Line Trail project.
He said actual construction on the Spring Park portion will begin next month and estimates Henrico will complete its 7.5-mile section by 2026 at the latest since the county has already secured $52 million for construction.
Henrico County plans to install parking, hardened restrooms, and other amenities at several points along their portion.
"I think what’s really cool about this project is the communities it will run through," Hughes said.
The Fall Line Trail with travel through Ashland, Hanover, Henrico, Richmond, Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, and Petersburg.
You can review the route and further project details here.
Since Ashland already opened its Trolley Line Trail and raised boardwalk, which will be part of the Fall Line Trail, Hughes said he anticipates the northernmost sections, through Hanover and Henrico into Richmond, will be fully open in the next few years.
“When you look at the amount of localities this project goes through, everyone is in agreement, so this is a great show of regionalism," he said.
In the coming years, project managers will have to secure the final rounds of funding and land use rights to make the full Fall Line Trail a reality, especially in sections south of the James River.
Hughes said the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, a regional partnership focused on funding transportation improvements, will continue to play a central role.
Tyndall thinks of all the opportunities the Fall Line Trail can bring with it for communities across Central Virginia.
“To have something like this where they can feel safe and get where they need to go and create those opportunities, is incredibly important," Tyndall said.
In the meantime — and all the time — Tyndall hopes drivers can consider this when they see cyclists along the roadway.
"I think to see us as very vulnerable humans that have lives and families, rather than a cyclist that’s slowing me down," Tyndall said.
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