PHOTOS BY JARED SOARES The Roanoke Times

Robert Reed of Roanoke and his son Justin Ryan ride their bikes Thursday on the new segment of the Roanoke River Greenway located in Green Hill Park in Roanoke County.

Aaron Fink of Salem and his dog, Shadow, cross the footbridge Thursday in Green Hill Park. The Green Hill trail will mark the westernmost end of the Roanoke River Greenway.

Roanoke County's "bridge to nowhere" now goes somewhere.

Almost exactly a year ago, Roanoke Valley Greenways coordinator Liz Belcher joked about the completion of a $60,000 "bridge to nowhere" in Roanoke County's Green Hill Park that spanned a gully where a greenway was planned.

At 10 this morning, Belcher will be back in the park for the dedication of the latest addition to the proposed 25-mile-long Roanoke River Greenway, a 0.8-mile section that incorporates that footbridge. It is the county's first stretch of that greenway along the river. Roanoke has completed about half of its portion of the river greenway -- so about one-quarter of the envisioned 25-mile greenway is complete.

At today's county dedication, dignitaries including U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, and county supervisors will ceremonially open the segment, the first along the Roanoke River in the county. They'll likely find it already in use.

The heavy work on the trail -- grading and paving -- ended March 14, completed in just about six weeks.

The rush was to beat the spawning season of the endangered log perch in the Roanoke River, when state regulations don't allow any construction that might result in toxic runoff.

Hand work along the edges has continued since and will run into the summer, although Roanoke County Greenways Planner Janet Scheid says the trail is 99 percent complete now.

Area residents didn't wait for completion to begin walking the trail, however.

"People started using it when the gravel sub-base was put down," said Lon Williams, a landscape architect and park planner with the county who oversaw the trail's development.

And that was just fine with him, a confirmation of the interest people have in greenways.

A 2006 survey of county residents showed that almost 60 percent wanted more greenways -- making it the most-desired parks and recreation amenity.

And almost two-thirds of those responding said Green Hill was the park they used the most.

"A lot of people walked along the road here [in the park] already," Scheid said. "When they saw something off-road, people immediately went to it. It's closer to the river, prettier ... and it's much safer."

"We're already seeing kids on bicycles, strollers, people with dogs," she said.

Word of mouth has helped spread the word to those who weren't regulars in the park.

Cortney Spitnale was out Thursday taking in a picture-perfect spring morning on the greenway with her two children.

She was pushing 1-year-old Graydon in his stroller while 4-year-old Tate pedaled along behind on his bike.

"We love it," she said. She's been bringing the children for a couple of weeks, ever since a neighbor told her about the greenway being open.

It's a perfect place for Tate to learn how to ride, she said, and it's only five minutes from their home in Salem.

Williams noted that it's easy, standing in the park, to imagine that it's "out in the middle of nowhere, but really there are a lot of homes nearby."

For many of those people, "walking is part of their lifestyle. It's not just recreation, but socializing" with other senior citizens or other parents.

The greenway will have what Belcher called "common-sense courtesy rules" -- such as keeping dogs on a leash and cleaning up after them, walking on the right and passing on the left, and prohibiting alcohol.

The idea is to accommodate a wide variety of users -- bicyclists, in-line skaters, walkers and runners -- in harmony, she said.

The greenway also is likely to attract fishing enthusiasts who want to take advantage of the trout stocking done in the river, Williams said. And, "families may want to step down to the river just to put their feet in."

While the Green Hill trail will mark the westernmost end of the Roanoke River Greenway, proposed to extend to Explore Park, it will also eventually expand into a three-mile loop all the way around the park.

That extension will have to wait for funding. Putting down the asphalt trail is expensive, even when the land is already owned by a locality, as the park is.

Williams said the eight-tenths of a mile in Green Hill cost more than $340,000, not counting the bridge, which was paid for by Novozymes Biologicals, a Roanoke County business that has committed to spend at least $250,000 on greenways over five years.

Most of the $340,000 came from transportation enhancement grants from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The cost also doesn't include the value of volunteer labor and other contributions, such as an information kiosk put up by the Back Road Bikers, a group of General Electric retirees.

Keeping the trail in shape also will require the help of those who use it.

Already there has been some vandalism -- obscene messages in chalk on the asphalt surface.

"Our best defense against that is users," Belcher said. "We encourage them to say something to people they see" vandalizing the property, or to call 911 and report it.

From both the parks' and greenway commission's perspectives, keeping the greenway attractive is important not only as a recreational amenity but also as an economic development driver.

"We think it will attract some people to come here just for the trail. They'll spend as much time here as the time it takes to get here," Belcher said, "so it does have an economic development impact."

Among the next items on the greenway agenda, Salem is planning a lane for the greenway on its new Colorado Street bridge, Belcher said.

And Roanoke County has received tentative approval for a grant to begin engineering and design work on the easternmost section of the greenway, from the Western Virginia Water Authority wastewater treatment plant to Explore Park.