GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It's a small two-block section, but the Downtown Greenway Project Manager says the Smith Street construction is important.

• It connects the completed northern leg of the loop with the Meeting Place Cornerstone.
• The work closed the right lane of Smith Street between Spring and Prescott. It's expected to stay that way until April.
• It's all expected to be completed by the end of 2020, over a decade after construction began in 2009.

It connects the completed northern leg of the loop with the Meeting Place Cornerstone.

The work closed the right lane of Smith Street between Spring and Prescott. It's expected to stay that way until April. Then crews move on to the larger 1.5 mile Murrow Boulevard portion.

"It extends from the intersection of Murrow and Gate City Boulevard. The Greenway will go all the way up the east side of Murrow, and then it will curve under Summit Avenue, and then connect up where the road becomes Fisher Avenue," Dabney Sanders, the project manager said.

An entire lane of Murrow Boulevard will be turned into the Greenway path. That project is expected to take 18 months.

Then, Sanders says, they'll move onto the final section: the western railroad section. That will complete the four-mile loop.

"We have complete designs for that section, and we are just working on some real estate acquisition and we hope we'll be under construction either later this year or very early next year on that section."

It's all expected to be completed by the end of 2020, over a decade after construction began in 2009.

Sanders expects the completed Greenway to grow on the success that they've already seen in the completed 1.5 miles.

"Over $217 million in private development has happened because of the Greenway."