How far north can you walk from Woodcroft Shopping Center on pavement before Third Fork Creek Trail runs out? The trail's northern end is Southern Boundaries Park, and it has been for years. Past the park's northern edge, roughly two miles of woods, Weaver Street, and the four lanes of Cornwallis Road separate the creek trail from the American Tobacco Trail. The City of Durham once planned to close that gap by 2025. Its current reports put the end of the design phase in late summer 2028.
Over that same stretch of years, the creek has gotten attention from another direction. Woodcroft neighbors have spent 2026 pulling privet out of the banks near the shopping center. Together, those two efforts explain the creek corridor better than any single map does.
What the pavement covers today
TrailLink lists Third Fork Creek Trail at 3.5 miles of concrete, running between Southern Boundaries Park and CE Jordan High School. Its route description names Garrett Road Park as the southern end and says the path skirts Woodcroft Shopping Center. Trail mapping apps list the full walk as a 6.6-mile out-and-back. They describe a paved, mostly gentle path along the creek, with bridges and boardwalk-style crossings.
TrailLink lists two places to park at the ends:
- Southern Boundaries Park, 100 3rd Fork Rd., at the northern end
- Garrett Road Park, 6815 Garrett Rd., at the southern end
Southern Boundaries Park covers 29.7 acres. According to Durham Parks and Recreation, it has a youth baseball and softball field, a basketball court, tennis courts and a tennis backboard, field lights, restrooms, a water fountain, and greenway access. That restroom and water fountain list matters on a long walk, because the park is the last stop with facilities before the pavement ends.
Woodcroft's own network sits on top of the city trail. The Woodcroft Community Association describes six miles of trails running through more than 200 acres of permanently preserved woodlands and fields. One mapped loop through the neighborhood paths runs 4.5 miles, with 4.1 of those miles paved and several access points. That paving came at a cost. In early 2020, the association's management company reported a $135,000 trail repaving project as nearly complete.
Taken together, that adds up to about ten miles of paved or mostly paved walking within a short distance of Hope Valley Road. One trail app's description on AllTrails says the greenway "connects with the American Tobacco Trail." The city sees it differently. Its fact sheet describes the planned extension as the project that would "fill a gap in the City's trail network by serving as the connection between the existing Third Fork Creek Trail and the American Tobacco Trail."
The link that was supposed to open in 2025
The city's plan for that connection is called the Third Fork Creek Extension Trail. According to the city's project fact sheet, it is a trail of about two miles. It would start at the existing trail in Southern Boundaries Park and end at the American Tobacco Trail where it meets Fayetteville Street. Along the way it would serve Weaver Street Recreation Center, the Weaver Street neighborhood, the wooded corridor between Weaver and Fayetteville streets, and the businesses and bus stops on Fayetteville Street.
The fact sheet describes the path as fully separated from traffic. It also calls for a safe crossing of Cornwallis Road, which it describes as four lanes with speeds over 50 mph. That crossing is the hard part. Getting a walker or cyclist across a road like Cornwallis safely is what separates a usable trail connection from a line on a planning map.
The schedule and the cost have both moved a long way since the fact sheet came out:
| Milestone | City fact sheet, 2021 | Latest public figures, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Design status | Design to be complete September 2023 | 90% design, working through NCDOT review comments (city FY2025-26 Q4 capital report) |
| Construction | Start January 2024 | No contract awarded |
| Completion | 2025 | Design phase projected to finish 8/30/2028 |
| Project cost | $9.35 million estimate | $27.74 million total, $22.19 million of it federal (Aug. 17, 2026 council action) |
The fact sheet itself flagged the risk. Its schedule note says the timing of design and construction "greatly depends on the timing of NCDOT reviews/approvals and availability of funding." The city's FY2025-26 fourth-quarter capital report rates the project red. It lists $4,426,670 authorized and $1,104,693 spent or encumbered. It also notes that the projected date "could potentially move up depending on ROW acquisitions," meaning how quickly the city can buy the land the trail needs.
What the August council vote did and did not do
On Aug. 17, 2026, Durham City Council voted 7-0 to approve agreements with NCDOT covering twelve federally funded transportation projects. A council meeting recap on Bullseye View reported that Third Fork Creek Trail was the biggest of the twelve, at $27.74 million total. According to the same recap, the money came out of NCDOT's cost verification process, which roughly every two years adds federal dollars to projects whose costs have grown. Durham pays costs up front and gets 80% back later. At the same meeting, the council approved a third amendment to Kimley-Horn's design contract for the Phase 2 trail. The amendment added $91,826.95 and brought the contract to $1,074,591.66.
Before the meeting, Southpoint Access described the trail's share of the package as about $3.2 million in additional federal funding. It also reported that the vote "wouldn't award construction contracts." The vote secured money for a project that is still in design. It did not set a groundbreaking date.
The road project running on the same clock
The Woodcroft Parkway extension is the other long-delayed project that would change how people get around on foot near the creek. It would extend the parkway from Hope Valley Road to a new intersection on Garrett Road in front of Jordan High School, and it includes a shared-use path.
The Parkway's timeline has slipped much like the trail's. In a July 2026 update, Southpoint Access recalled that city information from January 2024 showed construction starting in summer 2025 and ending in winter 2027. The update cited NCDOT funding schedule delays, right-of-way acquisition, and outside coordination as the reasons for the postponement. That July schedule projected right-of-way acquisition starting in September and construction in February 2028. The August funding agreement instead calls for construction in federal fiscal year 2028, which begins Oct. 1, 2027. Southpoint Access noted that the city's project page still listed a possible spring 2027 start. The project is listed at $17.5 million and still has a $269,314 local funding gap. City staff expect to cover that gap with Zone 4 street impact fees.
The two projects have several things in common. Both are federally backed, both depend on right-of-way, and both are reviewed by NCDOT. Neither has a confirmed construction date as of October 2026.
The work that is already underway
While the extension waits on reviews, the existing creek corridor has been getting regular hands-on work. Keep Durham Beautiful, the Woodcroft Community, and Rewild NC held a privet-removal workday along Third Fork Creek near Woodcroft Shopping Center on Saturday, March 14, 2026. They returned on Saturday, July 11, from 9 to 11 a.m., meeting at The Woodcroft School, 1307 West Woodcroft Parkway, to "continue tackling a privet infestation." Keep Durham Beautiful's event listing said tools and gloves would be provided. It asked volunteers to wear closed-toed shoes, long pants, and long sleeves, said volunteers ages 12 to 14 needed an adult with them, and did not recommend the event for children under 12. The association's community feed then posted a third Third Fork Creek invasive-removal session for Oct. 10 at 4 p.m.
That pace of work has a history. The Woodcroft HOA board created an Eco-Friendly Landscape Committee in 2019. Community Association Services reported that the committee's job included identifying problem areas and planning removal projects with both volunteers and paid contractors. Its early targets included English ivy and Japanese stiltgrass, along with "reclaiming overgrown greenways." The same report quotes the community covenants, which call for efforts to "protect, maintain, and enhance the conservation of the neighborhood's natural and scenic resources."
The association's planning is active this month too. The feed announced the second Woodcroft Tomorrow Together community visioning session for Sunday, Oct. 11, and a related meeting on an upcoming Tuesday at 7 p.m. Details are available to members who log in.
A walk that ends at the shopping center
Because the trail runs past Woodcroft Shopping Center, it is easy to stop for food along the way. Hope Café, a Thai restaurant at 4711 Hope Valley Road, moved into the former GG Fish and Chicken space and was open by February 2025, according to WRAL. Reno's Cheesesteaks is listed in the same center at Suite 6A. Both sit within a short walk of the stretch of creek where volunteers have been clearing privet this year.
If you'd like to talk through how the trail extension or the Woodcroft Parkway work could affect your corner of south Durham, the team at Spotlight Realty follows these projects closely and is happy to share what we're seeing. Contact Us anytime.
