Raleigh is exploring an ambitious new greenway to connect downtown to Dix Park.
Called The Oakline, the path would begin in front of the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts and run through the future Salisbury Square development and the City Gateway area where the Mira apartment complex is now built. A plaza is planned in the City Gateway area, then a bridge over Martin Luther King Boulevard that connects to a greenspace. Another bridge would cross over McDowell and Dawson streets before a small connector spanning South Saunders Street would lead into Dix Park.
Designers and advocates are touting the project as a way to solve the problem of interweaving two of Raleigh’s best assets — downtown and the 300-acre park — in a roughly 15 minute walk or five minute bike ride.
“We don’t have a beach, we don’t have a river through this city, but we do have 300-acre parks,” Sig Hutchinson, a former Wake County commissioner and greenway advocate, said. “How many great cities have a 300-acre park within a 15 minute walk? The problem is you just can’t get there. What would it be worth to connect this city to the park, but to connect it in a glorious way.”…