"James River Branch Trail complete." That line comes from Citizen Portal's summary of the September 8, 2026 meeting of Richmond City Council's Organizational Development Standing Committee. In the summary, the update sits in a list of park and greenway progress, between a Fall Line Trail segment still under construction and a splash pad still being built.
That's a quiet arrival for a project the city's 2024 brochure estimated at about $9 million. The trail is a paved path roughly two miles long, built on an old CSX rail bed between Westover Hills Boulevard and Hopkins Road. For anyone in Forest Hill who walks, runs or rides south of the river, the details that matter most sit at the five places where the old corridor crosses a road.
Five crossings, west to east
According to the city's capital projects page, the trail is 10 feet wide and crosses five roads. Each crossing gets either a Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon or a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon. Some crossings get more than a signal:
- Westover Hills Boulevard. This is the western end, the one closest to Forest Hill. Like every crossing, it gets a beacon plus street lighting, landscaping, benches, trash cans and bike racks.
- Midlothian Turnpike. This crossing gets the biggest change to the road itself: a lane reduction and a choke island, along with the signal.
- Hull Street Road. A beacon here, plus a separate city project that changes the street around the crossing. More on that below.
- E. Broad Rock Road. A raised crosswalk, so drivers reach the trail at sidewalk height.
- Hopkins Road. The eastern end, where the trail meets another planned corridor project.
The same city description lists the street lighting, landscaping, benches, trash cans and bicycle racks as amenities "at each trail crossing." In other words, the benches and bike racks are clustered where the trail meets the road grid, not spread evenly along the two miles.
Why the crossings carry the project
Midlothian Turnpike and Hull Street Road are two of the main roads south of the river, and the trail crosses both. The lane reduction, choke island, raised crosswalk and beacons in the plan are all aimed at the moment someone on foot or on a bike reaches one of those roads.
Hull Street shows how far the city took this. The Department of Public Works' Hull Street project page describes reconfiguring Hull Street "from Clopton Street to the new James River Branch Trail" to cut speeding and make the street safer for the people using it. It cites a 2020 roadway safety assessment and adds dedicated left-turn lanes over the same stretch. So the trail serves as the end point for a separate street-safety project, not just a line crossing the road.
The same thing is happening at the eastern end. In November 2025, the city announced a federally funded multimodal project along Hopkins Road, from Collier Hill Road onward. The James River Branch Trail is on the list of bike-network links that project is meant to provide, along with Belt Boulevard, Bells Road, Warwick Road and Holly Springs Avenue.
GRTC's 2026 transit-oriented development study for the North-South Pulse bus rapid transit line treats the trail the same way. It calls the trail a two-mile route "scheduled to be completed in late 2026." It also names Southside Plaza, parks and schools among the destinations the trail reaches, and recommends multiple high-quality access points to it. At the December 2024 groundbreaking, WRIC reported that officials expected the route to improve access to the James River Park System, including for people heading to Southside Plaza and a nearby high school.
A finish on the city's own schedule
The timeline shifted once and then held. The city's March 2024 brochure, handed out at a public information meeting that month, estimated construction from Winter 2024 to Spring 2026, paid for with American Rescue Plan Act money through the U.S. Department of the Treasury. By the groundbreaking on December 10, 2024, the target had moved to December 2026, as WRIC reported.
The September committee update put the trail at complete, two to three months before that December target. The capital projects page, meanwhile, still describes the trail in planning language: it "will construct" the path, which "is proposed" for the old rail bed. On the calendar, no ribbon cutting or formal opening date has been posted yet.
The city's volunteer listings already treat the trail as finished. A Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities posting on CFengage invites volunteers to a litter cleanup "on the new James River Branch Trail." It describes biweekly gatherings to keep "Richmond's newest trail system" clean and provides trash grabbers, bags and gloves. The dates on that posting have since passed. If you plan to try the trail yourself, check the city's Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities channels first for current access details. The city's project materials don't spell out trailhead parking.
Poems at the crossings, and a longer line on the map
The first public art planned for the trail follows the same crossing-by-crossing logic. In March 2026, a Public Art Commission file was opened for a presentation by Richmond Poet Laureate Joanna S. Lee and the city's Office of Strategic Communications called "Poetry on the James River Branch Trail". It proposes a seasonal pilot. Poems by people who live, work or study along the corridor would be solicited and selected, then posted through QR codes on trail infrastructure. Scanning a code could let you read or hear a poem and learn about its poet and the local landscape. The plan ends with an installation and a public reading.
The pilot fits the hardware. The beacons, benches and bike racks at each crossing are the obvious places for a small QR marker. The presentation is a proposal, so the poets and the installation date are still to come.
The map may grow too. The city's pedestrian, bicycling and trails page lists a pipeline project called "James River Branch Trail – Hopkins Road to 49th Street." That project would take the name beyond its current eastern end at Hopkins Road, where the Hopkins Road corridor work is set to meet it.
Volunteer work isn't limited to the trail, either. Friends of James River Park has a Wetlands invasive-removal session on Sunday, November 1, from 9 a.m. to noon at 3401 Landria Dr. At these workdays, James River Park System staff supply tools and gloves, and the work can include pulling invasive vines, shrubs and other plants. It's a short drive from the western end of the new trail, and a good fit for a weekend morning if you'd rather work on the river parks than just walk them.
For Forest Hill, the trail is two miles of new pavement on an old rail line. More usefully, it's a planned way across Midlothian Turnpike and Hull Street Road, with a signal waiting at each crossing.
If a quieter route across the Southside matters when you think about where you want to live, I'm glad to talk through how places like the James River Branch Trail fit into your plans. Reach out to Heather Grubb. Let's Connect.
