What the Berkeley Drive Construction Is Actually Building

"So basically, from the edge of the road to the white line to the back of the sidewalk will be a new 10-foot-wide multi-use trail," Clemson City Engineer Nathan Hinkle told WSPA in late September. That's the plain explanation for the cones and fresh concrete along Berkeley Drive this fall. The bigger story is where the work leads. The project connects Clemson Park, Ashley Dearing Park and the neighborhoods around them to the Green Crescent Trail, which already runs to the university. At the Issaqueena Trail end, the path finishes at a new 4.36-acre park the City is designing as a place to go, not just a place to pass.

A sidewalk more than twice as wide

Berkeley Drive's old sidewalk is about 4.5 feet wide, which is room for one person walking, and not much more once a stroller or bike comes the other way. The City is widening it to 10 feet along a 1.5-mile stretch from Frontage Road to Issaqueena Trail. At that width, walkers, runners, cyclists and families with strollers can share the path.

The extra width is the part you can see. The rest of the project is less obvious but changes how the corridor works day to day:

• Better crosswalks along the route
• ADA accessibility upgrades
• Drainage work
• Improved parking at Ashley Dearing Park

The City put the job out to bid this spring. Its solicitation for the "2026 Berkeley Drive Multi-Use Path" went out March 20, 2026, and bids were due April 22. By mid-October, The Tiger reported that most of the concrete work was finished. Hinkle described the goal mostly in terms of safety. "One of the big draws on this is it's really improving safety for all users, road users and trail users as well," he told WSPA.

Where the 1.5 miles goes

According to Friends of the Green Crescent, the Berkeley Drive corridor will link neighborhoods along the route with Clemson Elementary, Clemson Park, Ashley Dearing Park and existing sections of the Green Crescent Trail. Hinkle explained to WSPA why that connection matters. "This connects the first project to the Green Crescent Trail that actually goes all the way to the university to Perimeter Road and eventually this will be connected to Nettles Park," he said.

Here's how the pieces stood in the most recent updates this fall:

The Ashley Dearing Park Loop shows how the system is supposed to work. It's only a quarter mile of concrete, but it ties into the existing paths in Tottie's Place. With the wider Berkeley Drive path running past the same park, that loop becomes part of a longer route.

The park at the Issaqueena end

Berkeley Orchard Park sits at the corner of Berkeley Drive and Issaqueena Trail, along Rock Creek. The City acquired the land partly with support from the South Carolina Conservation Bank, and it has already removed the house that used to stand on the property.

The plans describe something quieter than a typical neighborhood park with ballfields. Construction documents and project descriptions include:

1. A water sensory play area next to Rock Creek
2. An arboretum and reflection areas
3. Native plantings and decorative fruit trees
4. Boulders for nature play and exploring
5. Six benches
6. Drinking-water features and a pet fountain
7. A parking lot with about 16 spaces

Hinkle described the creekside play area to WSPA as "a water sensory play area that will be adjacent to the creek that will allow everyone to kind of play and learn and have a safe area to play."

About 16 parking spaces is a small lot for a park. It makes sense for a park built along a trail, where many visitors are expected to walk or bike in on the new path from Frontage Road or the neighborhoods off Berkeley Drive.

The City has described the property as "an urban oasis for wildlife and passive recreation," with an emphasis on keeping green space in a part of Clemson where development keeps getting denser. City sustainability discussions have also leaned toward managing the land in a more natural way, with less reliance on herbicides and fossil fuels.

A bikeways plan from the early 2000s

This corridor didn't start this year. The Tiger traced the project back to the early 2000s, when it began as a bikeways plan and grew into the trail-and-park project now under construction. Hinkle told the paper that planners started with key destinations and then filled in the smaller connecting routes that "make a multi-use path system useful and valuable."

The everyday goal is getting places without a car. Hinkle put it this way to The Tiger: "I think we all have this dream that the park is like the trail system allows people to, instead of just driving their car to watch … their kids to go play in a racket league, to be able to walk or bike to that as well."

The Tiger also reported that Berkeley Orchard Park is part of a larger effort connecting Clemson University to three other city parks. Friends of the Green Crescent describes an even wider network over time, reaching Nettles Park, Patrick Square, Pendleton and Central. Some of those links already exist. Others still need easements, funding, design or construction. The Berkeley Drive project is a City of Clemson project, funded and built by the City. The Friends group supports the larger trail vision but isn't building this segment.

The winter ahead on Berkeley Drive

For now, Berkeley Drive is still a work zone. The City expects the path and the park to be finished in early 2027, weather permitting. Until then, the Ashley Dearing Park Loop and the existing Green Crescent sections toward campus are the parts of the network you can already use.

When the work wraps up, the stretch between Frontage Road and Issaqueena Trail will offer a walk past an elementary school and two existing parks, finishing at a creekside park with benches, fruit trees and a pet fountain. Today, the same walk follows a sidewalk barely wide enough for one person.

If you're watching the Green Crescent grow and wondering which Clemson streets will end up a short walk from it, that's the kind of local question we enjoy talking through. Reach out to Daniel Sanders & Co. anytime. We're glad to share what we know about how Clemson's parks and trails fit together, whether or not a move is on your calendar.