Swamp Rabbit Trail Cleveland Park Closure: Fall 2026 and Verdae Bridge

"By eliminating the at-grade crossing, we are creating a safer experience for trail users while also improving traffic flow for drivers." Assistant city engineer Nick De Palma said that in July, after contractors set the new pedestrian bridge over Verdae Boulevard during the night of July 6.

The bridge has been in place for three months now. It isn't open yet. Neither is the rebuilt Swamp Rabbit section through Cleveland Park, which closed June 3. Down on the Reedy, crews are still pulling Hurricane Helene debris out of the river between Falls Park and Mauldin Road. All three projects have deadlines in the same late-October-to-fall window. If you ride or run south of downtown, this is when that whole side of the trail gets reset.

Where each piece stands on October 4

All of these are the city's stated targets, not confirmed openings. For live status, check the City of Greenville's Swamp Rabbit Trail page.

The Cleveland Park dates have moved. When work started in June, the Greenville Journal reported completion by the beginning of October. In late August, the Greenville News cited an August 15 city post that called it a fall opening and said the affected areas would stay closed through October. No one has announced a formal delay, and no one has announced a ribbon-cutting either.

The crossing the 2023 build couldn't afford

The bridge matters because of how the Green Line opened. The extension opened in June 2023 with the Cleveland Connector, known as the Paperclip, linking it to Cleveland Park. It also got pedestrian bridges over Laurens Road and Haywood Road. At Verdae Boulevard, though, trail users crossed at street level. According to the city, there was no money for a bridge at Verdae back then, so it put in a signalized trail crossing. City Council funded the next phase in 2025.

The bridge is 1,180 feet long, and city capital improvement money and state money are paying for it. Reports don't agree on the price. In 2025 the Greenville Journal put the total cost at $4.72 million. The July 2026 report listed $4.5 million from the city and $2.9 million from the state. In the June State of the City update, the city manager said it would be finished "no later than October." The July report said contractors still had to pave the deck and install safety features before it opens.

The bridge also starts the next phase of work. Once it opens, Greenville County will pave the extension to Millennium Boulevard, which is expected to take about 60 days. The city's website also lists another segment from Millennium Boulevard to Innovation Drive as being in planning. So if the bridge opens in late October, the paved route toward the CU-ICAR campus would likely arrive around the turn of the year. That lines up with the city's June hope to finish the full extension by year-end.

The section from the Legacy Connector to Verdae closed on July 28, 2025, ahead of bridge construction. As of this week, it has been closed for more than 14 months.

What comes back at Cleveland Park

Cleveland Park is the other end of the same Green Line, about 1.5 miles from Falls Park on the southbound route. The $3 million Cleveland Park Zoo Playground Revitalization Project is mostly known for its playground, but the trail work is part of the same contract. Here's what the city has described:

• A widened, realigned Swamp Rabbit Trail section with bike parking and new water fountains
• New picnic shelters, plus grading and landscaping meant to cut down on standing water
• A play area for ages 2 to 5
• A 27-foot accessible tower for ages 5 to 12, with one of the largest slides in the city
• A ninja-style obstacle course for tweens
• Ten swings with built-in shade, plus zoo-themed interactive features

Landscape Structures worked on the playground redesign. The Greenville Zoo, Brooks' Playground and the sports courts have stayed open throughout construction. A family coming for the zoo can still make a morning of it. A cyclist riding through on the trail will hit the detour. The city announced a detour route when work began, but it was published as a map image. Check the city's current version before you go rather than relying on memory.

Put the two projects together and the Green Line is closed near both ends right now. When both reopen, the city will have a wider trail at Cleveland Park and a bridge at Verdae on the same corridor, both finishing in the same season.

The river under the trail, two years after Helene

The third deadline is on the water. Hurricane Helene hit the Upstate in late September 2024. As of September 25, contractors were working on the hard-to-reach debris still left along the Reedy between Falls Park and Mauldin Road. A $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture pays for removing about 25,000 cubic yards of fallen trees and vegetation. FOX Carolina put that at enough to cover a football field nearly 14 feet deep. City officials say the goal is to reduce flooding during future heavy rains, and the work is scheduled through late October.

The report doesn't mention any trail closures for this work. It does say where the debris ends up. Material pulled from the river is trucked to the Greenville Downtown Airport, mulched there, and reused in city parks and municipal facilities. At Conestee Park, timber and limbs that Helene brought down were turned into a natural playscape with climbing structures, walkways and tunnels.

The trail work doesn't stop after this fall. In June, the city listed two more projects for the next fiscal year. One is a one-mile rehabilitation of the Swamp Rabbit between River Street and Unity Park. The other is a one-mile West Village Connector linking Unity Park to West Greenville. Neither has a start date yet.

Riding the south side in October, as it actually is

Here's a route that works with the detours, in order from downtown:

1. Start at Falls Park on the Reedy, 601 S. Main St. Check the date first. Fall for Greenville runs Oct. 9 to 11 with a kickoff concert on Thursday, Oct. 8. WSPA reported that Main Street closes for nearly a mile, from North Street to Augusta Street, starting at 7 a.m. on Oct. 8. FOX Carolina described the closure window a little differently, so check the city's traffic notice before you drive in to park.
2. Follow the detour at Cleveland Park. The zoo and Brooks' Playground are open. The rebuilt trail section isn't.
3. Pick up the Green Line toward Laurens Road. Willy Taco Feed & Seed is at 217 Laurens Road. Farther out, Home Team BBQ sits right beside the trail at Holland Park, 815 Laurens Road. The Ottaray Raw Bar & Taphouse opened over the 2024 holidays at 1418 Laurens Road. Kitchen Sync is at 1609 Laurens Road.
4. Branch to Legacy Park on the Legacy Connector. The 20-acre park is the usual place to turn around while the section toward Verdae stays closed.
5. On a Thursday, end back at Falls Park. World Finance Moonlight Movies are free at dusk on Oct. 15 with Coco, Oct. 22 with Rocky III, and Oct. 29 with Monster House and Poltergeist. The Oct. 29 finale includes a Halloween celebration and a "Thriller" flash mob. There's no screening on Oct. 8 because of the festival.

Rerun the same route in November and it could look quite different. The Cleveland Park detour could be gone, the Legacy Connector would no longer be the end of the line, and you'd cross Verdae Boulevard on the bridge instead of waiting at a signal. If the city's targets hold, the newly paved stretch toward Millennium Boulevard would open around the turn of the year.

Over the years I've watched how trail access and new connections like these change what buyers ask about a street, so I follow these openings closely. If you're curious how the Green Line work might affect the value of your home near Laurens Road, Cleveland Park or Verdae, Amanda Holmes is happy to go through it with you. Schedule a consultation and we'll look at it together.