Franklin’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen will Tuesday hear a report on executing a professional services agreement for construction management and inspection services for the extension of Third Avenue North along the edge of the dormant Bicentennial Park project.

The first phase of the project will be fully city funded and include the road, bridge, lighting, utilities and landscaping/irrigation. The second phase currently has $630,000 in TDOT/Federal funding for the construction of a multi-use path system along the Harpeth River.

The 19-acre site is the site of a former boot factory and lies within the floodplain of the Harpeth River. Plans have been drawn for the property and the pavilion which remains on the site, but no funding is currently budgeted for these improvements.

The multi-use path trail is an important piece in the issue of interconnectivity among the city’s parks and roadways. Completion of this trail is one aspect of the implementation of the city’s Greenway & Open Space Master Plan. The addition of Streetscape improvements along First Avenue and Franklin Road to The Factory would bring the city closer to providing connected greenways and walkways, an issue the citizens ranked highly in Franklin Tomorrow’s 2011 Vision Fair process.