Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Roanoke's parks and recreation department has rolled out a survey to gauge interest in and use of the greenways.

Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Roanoke's parks and recreation department has rolled out a survey to gauge interest in and use of the greenways.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is developing a plan to extend the Roanoke River Greenway five miles from its western terminus at Wasena Park.

Bikers, runners and walkers traverse the Roanoke Valley's growing network of greenways, but the city needs to know how often they're out there and how much money they're spending. It's a way to justify that these paths keep moving forward.

So, if you're a greenway user, log on and speak up, implore officials with Roanoke's parks and recreation department.

The department created an eight-question online economic analysis survey to measure greenway use. The questions range from how frequently do you visit a local greenway to how much money do you spend on greenway-related equipment, such as bicycles and jogging strollers. Also, would you pay more for a home that's located within a quarter-mile of one of these outdoor paths?

The purpose of this survey appears to be twofold. The city wants to gauge how area people use greenways to make a case for future greenway funding through grants and government sources, said Steve Buschor, director of the parks and recreation department.

Also, the results from this survey, which went live Friday, will be handed over to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps is designing a phase of the Roanoke River Greenway project to extend the path five miles from its present western terminus at Wasena Park in Roanoke to the Salem city line, near the intersection of Brandon Avenue and Peters Creek Road.

Much of the river greenway has been constructed over the past five years in conjunction with the Roanoke River flood control project. Work on the flood control project, the cost of which is shared by the federal and city governments, is expected to move west of the former Hannah Court Mobile Home Park in coming years.

The Corps of Engineers asked the city to report the benefits, including economic, for expanding the greenway. It's a periodic evaluation, said Penny Schmitt, chief of public affairs for the Corps of Engineers office in Wilmington, N.C.

"Any project that the corps does, it has to have more benefits than it costs," she said. "The majority [of the benefits] have to come from the flood reduction features of the project. Some percentage of the benefits can come from the recreation aspects."

Schmitt said the Corps of Engineers does not have a specific measure for the benefits analysis.

The Corps of Engineers will receive $5.25 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to be used to complete the structural portion of the flood reduction project and develop the greenway. The projected cost of the project is about $73 million, according to City Engineer Phil Schirmer.

As for gauging the use of the greenway system, which stretches about 20 miles in the Roanoke Valley, the parks and recreation department already has tracked at least 900 people traversing the Roanoke River Greenway on a nice weather day, said Donnie Underwood, parks and greenways planner for the department.

"We can tell you how many people use the trail, but we don't know the reasons why," he said.

Underwood is trying to get the word out about the online questionnaire by sending e-mails and distributing fliers to people on the greenway, directing them to the survey's link online.

The questions aren't only for city residents. Underwood wants to hear from all people who spend time on the greenways, including out-of-towners.

The survey ends June 1.

Meanwhile, some other Roanoke River Greenway projects will receive $2 million in economic stimulus money through the Virginia Department of Transportation. The funds will be used to build a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Roanoke River, connecting the Tinker Creek Greenway to the Roanoke River Greenway on its eastern end.

The money also will fund an extension to the Salem greenway at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex.

Roanoke officials want to extend another city greenway, the Lick Run Greenway, north to Peters Creek Road. That greenway starts in downtown Roanoke and ends near Best Buy on Valley View Boulevard.

An extension of Lick Run would border the west side of Interstate 581 and add three miles to the 3.2-mile path.

But for now, the city's focusing most of its funding on the Roanoke River Greenway projects. A Lick Run extension will have to wait, Underwood said.

"The economy's going to have to turn around before we think of that," he said.

Also, the city intends to work with potential developers of vacant land along I-581 to carve out Lick Run's future path, should a developer purchase the land, he added.

Still, Lick Run frequenters will notice some changes this summer. Educational signs and 30 mileposts will be added to the greenway, funded by a $10,000 grant from the Kiwanis Club of Roanoke. The signs will display environmental information about the area's wetlands and bird habitat. A milepost will be placed every tenth of a mile along the path.

Underwood said mileposts also are going up along other Roanoke Valley greenways, but Lick Run will be the first to receive all of its markers.

Online: www.roanokeva.gov/greenwaysurvey

Staff writer Mason Adams contributed to this report.