Categorized |Business
From Staff Reports
The last segment of Wolf River Blvd. between Farmington and Kimbrough officially opened Tuesday after years of anticipation and planning.
The new boulevard is a four-lane, median-divided road with traffic signals at the Farmington and Kimbrough intersections. The two-mile segment represents the final Germantown leg of Wolf River Blvd. as envisioned in the Memphis-Metropolitan Planning Organization and City of Germantown Major Road Plans.
The roadway allows motorists to travel east and west uninterrupted from the Walnut Grove area to eastern Shelby County.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Aug. 20.
Because roadway was constructed in an environmentally sensitive wetland ecosystem, Germantown teamed with Audubon International to ensure responsible design and construction. As a result, this section of Wolf River Blvd. minimizes runoff pollution to the nearby Wolf River and allows animal populations to live in harmony with the roadway.
The design included a pedestrian underpass with solar powered lighting, oversized drainage culverts to accommodate wildlife passage and use of native drought-tolerant plants and grasses for slope stabilization and median cover. The roadway features bike paths adjacent to the vehicular travel lanes.
A decorative fence serves to protect those using the path but provides a nearly unobstructed view of the river as one passes.
Construction on the connector began in March 2011 and was locally managed by the Germantown. Eighty percent of the funding for the project was provided through the federal Surface Transportation Program. The city funded the remaining 20 percent.
