Nettleship was selected in 1990 to work with the engineering firm HNTB to develop a master plan for the Old Cross Cut Canal Linear Park.  The project replaced the Old Cross Cut's deep, open flood channel with an underground box culvert, and created a linear park from Indian School Road to McDowell Road. Nettleship's work includes relief patterns along a 120-foot section of retaining wall at the park's south end, and stamped patterns in the concrete along the park's bike path, at spillways and at a seating node at the north end. The artist based his jazzy zig-zag patterns on different views of the profile of Camelback Mountain, which rises prominently to the north.​