Rockdale Citizen

Photo by Howard Reed

CONYERS -- South Rockdale Community Park will be closed this month for trail construction, the county announced Thursday.

The park, located at 3909 East Fairview Road, will reopen once work is complete on the trail, which is expected sometime in March, according to the announcement.

The new trail is Phase B in the master plan for the South River trail. The trail section begins at the intersection of Daniels Bridge Road and Union Church Road and ends at South Rockdale Park, according to Andrew Hammer, Rockdale County special projects manager.

"It will contain five bridges across various small tributaries of the South River and will be a combination of asphalt pavement, concrete, and pervious concrete pavement," Hammer said in an e-mail response to questions. "There will be benches, trash cans, signage, and landscaping along the trail."

The trail will be a 12-foot-wide, multi-use path for non-motorized vehicles, with the exception of motorized wheelchairs. Once completed, the trail will be about 13 miles long, stretching from the DeKalb County line at Panola Mountain State Park to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.

The trail construction is the first since 2008 in Rockdale County when 1.2 miles of trail were completed within Panola Mountain State Park from the DeKalb County line to Alexander Lake on Flat Bridge Road.

Funding for Phase B totals $1.56 million from a combination of sources: $1.047 in state Transportation Enhancement funds; $253,000 in private PATH Foundation funds; $113,717 in Rockdale County impact fees; and $150,000 in 2005 SPLOST funds.

Other phases of the trail's master plan will connect Alexander Lake with the intersection of Union Church and Daniels Mill roads, and then connect the park to the Lorraine Trailhead at Ga. Highway 138 and the South River.

From the Lorraine Trailhead, the trail moves to Lorraine Elementary School and ends at the monastery's new welcome center.

Hammer said bids for work on the trailhead itself, the site of a former car junkyard, will be let in the next month or two. The trailhead will include a parking lot, small playground, pavilion, restrooms, and several short trails.

Once completed Rockdale's South River trail will connect with the Arabia Mountain trail in DeKalb County as an element of the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area.