Roanoke city planners are considering three routes that would link the Roanoke River and Tinker Creek greenways.

All three are somewhat similar in that they would extend the paved trail to about a mile and a half beyond its current end at Bennington Street, beside the regional wastewater treatment plant.

All three also include the same location for a planned footbridge just north of that facility across the Roanoke River, said Donnie Underwood, Roanoke's parks and greenways planner.

Underwood told the Roanoke City Council during a presentation Monday that the bridge would cost about $600,000. The rest of the greenway's costs, he said, would depend on the route.

The three proposed routes all leave the riverside to skirt around the wastewater treatment plant to the east, with variations on the exact path:

n A route that swings east and into some rough terrain that would require switchbacks to climb up and around some hills.

n A route that cuts through Golden Park and then goes over a causeway between two retention ponds near the treatment plant.

n A route that also cuts through Golden Park before winding around the edge of both ponds.

Planners conducted an evening meeting Monday as well to gather public input. About two dozen people attended.

Their main concerns included security and emergency access issues, trail etiquette and potential problems with the pathway's proximity to the treatment plant. But their primary issue was a desire to see the greenways united as an unbroken whole.

Underwood told the group that the meeting was a step forward in bringing that about.

"This is part of making them all connected," he said.

Representatives from MMM Design Group, which is working on the project, presented a design update. Structural engineer Dexter Casterlow walked the group through the pros and cons of each proposed route.

n The first plan, he said, creates the least amount of encroachment on the treatment plant but involves sloping issues and requires the trail to cross the railroad tracks.

n The second plan eliminates the need to cross the tracks and decreases the amount of river crossings, but requires a bridge with a deck supported by cables. He said this type of bridge is expensive and not entirely appropriate to the surroundings.

n The third plan, Casterlow said, would use a more than 200-foot connective truss to forge the shortest distance across the river.

Planners are expected to report back to the Roanoke Planning Commission with more details in November, then come back to the council with a final report about January.

If the city council votes to go forward with the greenway project, planners will work on design and finalizing construction documents during fiscal year 2010, and then work to obtain funding from a number of public and private sources during fiscal year 2011.

During the morning's council meeting, Councilman Alvin Nash questioned why the greenway linkage was needed.

Underwood responded that when the city's parks and recreation department held public meetings on its master plan, citizens identified greenways as their No. 1 priority.

"Our folks, our citizens, our users want a connected system," Underwood said. "They want, ideally, wherever they live in our community, to get on a trail, ride their bike, push their baby stroller and be able to go throughout the valley."

Assistant City Manager Brian Townsend said that connecting the various greenways is necessary to make the network more useful.

"The more connections we have and the more barriers we overcome -- the river being the biggest one -- the more usability you have," Townsend said.

"We really need to make these major junction points work for the good of the entire system."

In other, related business, the council was briefed on the city government's latest priorities identified in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century grant applications.

TEA-21 money is not used for traditional road construction or maintenance; past projects have included the Mill Mountain, Roanoke River and Lick Run greenways, as well as the Virginia Museum of Transportation and O. Winston Link Museum.

For fiscal year 2010, the city requested $700,000 for the Roanoke River Greenway from the Virginia Department of Transportation, with matching funds of $175,000 from the city.

It also sponsored an application by the Roanoke chapter of the National Railway Historical Society seeking $500,000, with a 20 percent match from Norfolk Southern and other sources, to help restore the Virginia Railway Passenger Station as a historic landmark and small museum.

Staff writer Neil Harvey contributed to this report.