Hoover, Shelby County to start Inverness greenway construction in fall

A 1.6-mile trail between the Inverness Nature Park and Valleydale Road will get under construction sometime this fall in a joint project between Shelby County and the city of Hoover.

The Inverness greenway has been on the to-do list for the city and county for about 10 years, Shelby County Chief Development Officer Chad Scroggins said. It had been delayed due to challenges in getting federal approvals and acquiring right-of-way access from the properties that will be impacted by the sidewalk’s construction.

Scroggins said the sidewalk, measuring about 8 to 10 feet wide, will be built along Inverness Parkway from Hoover Fire Station 7 to Inverness Nature Park and Trails. That road experiences heavy traffic, he said, so creating connectivity for pedestrians will be helpful and make the roadway safer.

“There’s a lot of subdivisions along that Inverness Parkway area. It’ll just provide a connection,” Scroggins said.

That connectivity will also link to a widening project planned for a portion of Valleydale Road, which will include about 4 miles of new sidewalks, Hoover Chief Operations Officer Tim Westhoven said.

Westhoven said adding more sidewalks and “walkability” on the eastern end of Hoover has been on the city’s radar for a while, and they’re glad to see the Inverness project get started.

“It’s the spine network of sidewalks. You’ve got to have the spine built so then you have the ability to branch off the spine and go into neighborhoods,” he said.

The Inverness Parkway and Valleydale projects will eventually create a path from Veterans Park to the Inverness Nature Park. Westhoven said the Inverness Nature Park encompasses about 80 acres and includes trails and a disc golf course.

“We believe this will start opening that nature area up to be more accessible for folks to enjoy,” Westhoven said.

Westhoven said the city has not looked at any possible updates or added amenities for the Inverness Nature Park to tie into this project. However, he said they may invite community input on what the park needs in the future.

According to Shelby County, right-of-way acquisition is still in progress for the Valleydale widening project, with some difficult pieces still to be acquired, and there is no timeline to start construction on it at this time.

However, Scroggins said the Inverness greenway project was expected to go to bid in July, with construction following around September or later in the fall. The budget was estimated at around $1.29 million, Scroggins said, but the county will have to confirm whether the bids that construction firms submit will meet that budget.

The federal government will pay 80% of the construction costs of the project through grant dollars, Scroggins said, and the city and county will each pay 10%.

“We are incredibly excited about this project,” Westhoven said.