From the PG this weekend:
Biking: Commuters will love Steel Valley Trail
Saturday, May 01, 2010
By Larry Walsh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Jack Paulik is looking forward to the day when Mon Valley residents can commute by bicycle from McKeesport to Pittsburgh along the Steel Valley Trail segment of the Great Allegheny Passage.
"They'll get to town faster during rush hour than motorists tied up in traffic," predicted Paulik, project manager for the Regional Trail Corporation. "They'll get home faster, too."
He estimates it will not take cyclists much more than an hour to cover the 16-mile distance, especially since the trail will be paved.
"Most bicyclists can travel 12 to 15 miles an hour on a paved trail without really pushing it," he said. "We envision this section of the trail as a commuter route, and it should be usable most of the year."
So, when will the final four miles of the Steel Valley Trail be completed, including the almost half-mile segment that will go through the Sandcastle Waterpark in West Homestead?
"Eleven, 11, 11," Paulik said, referring to Nov. 11, 2011. "It has a good jingle to it."
Agreements have been reached with 27 of the 28 property owners for the access needed to complete the trail through brownfields and industrial sites. The last one, an agreement with Sandcastle, remains a work-in-progress. County officials are handling the negotiations.
Hannah Hardy, vice president of the trail council, said a portion of Sandcastle's private road, which the council hopes trail-users will be able to share, is owned by CSX. That brought another major player to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, there's a lot to be done in the intervening 19 months, including the construction and placement of two bridges over active Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. Plans call for the bridges, which are being fabricated in Minnesota, to be trucked to their respective sites in early July.
The railroad has agreed to halt train traffic through that busy corridor for up to four hours on two separate dates so a 500-ton crane can hoist the bridges into position. The bridges are two miles apart.
The 170-foot bridge near Whitaker, which will have a 350-foot access ramp, will cross the tracks between Kennywood Park and the Rankin Bridge. The 137-foot bridge near Duquesne will have two 350-foot access ramps. The total cost of the bridge project is $3.5 million.
"I think this will be the biggest construction year we've ever had," said Paulik, who emphasized that trail projects are off limits to the public until all the work is completed.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10121/1054802-140.stm#ixzz0mtd6pHVO
That's some really good PR, I can't help but think the phrase "agreements have been reached with 27 out of 28 property owners..." will put some pressure on "sadcastle" (TM@Mick).
But, "They also invited them -- and the public -- to join them at 10 a.m. today for a 3-mile guided biking/walking tour of the trail between Duquesne and McKeesport." Invitation the day of? In the Saturday paper? That's a good way to make sure no one shows up.
Frankly it's about $&@#%'n time we heard some news on this! And awesome awesome news it is. After my trek to Homestead via Browns Hill Road this afternoon, I'd much rather be taking the river trail thank you very much. Although, on the downhill sidewalk I was actually going FASTER than the traffic. Thank you PAT bus for the lift back up to Squirrel Hill.
It says it is to be a paved trail, but isn't the riverside trail at the Waterfront just crushed limestone or something similar? I suppose if they keep it I'll just opt for the main road parallel to the river then, but just curious.
Next on the agenda... Glenwood Bridge improvements! XDDD
it will all be paved trail, even the waterfront portion once it's installed.
it's just a matter of time with Sandcastle. I know they are still actively negotiating.
The Waterfront section is indeed crushed stone at the moment, not asphalt.
I see the McKeesport Daily News ran an article mentioning the trail tour back on April 20th. Don't know why it took the P-G so long to schedule an article. Maybe they wanted to wait until after the ceremony the day before the tour.
Wait - so as of right now, what's the easiest way to get to McKeesport from the Glenwood bridge area? I'm a little hazy on the details.
When I bike to homestead right now, I go down the SS trail to its terminus, walk along the tracks to the road under the glenwood bridge. If the sandcastle gate is locked, I go over towards the wessco plant and shoulder my bike up a set of steps up to 837. I then ride the path/sidewalk from there into homestead and the waterfront.
if you walk another half mile along the tracks you will get to the end of the barbed wire fence and can just step over to the sandcastle road and ride. much safer than screwing around with that section of 837.
Once you get into the Waterfront area, how do you continue on toward McKeesport?
Browns Hill Road is such a mess right now. Not only is riding with the traffic harrowing, but you cannot easily use the sidewalks either. The sidewalk that eventually runs on the downstream side of the bridge is narrow and awkwardly shaped as a channel for runoff water (usually wet too) so I hate that side. The other sidewalk is much nicer, but it too has problems, many of which stem from the construction. One, on the bridge itself there are two large construction signs on the sidewalk, making it difficult to get a loaded bike through. Also, the sidewalk isn't finished at the intersection with Old Browns Hill Road. And finally, the sidewalk on that side doesn't even go all the way to the top of the hill and that crazy intersection with Beechwood Blvd. To get there, it's easier to cut through to the back of the parking lots there to little-known Saline Street, but it's a crazy-steep old street with lots of potholes and drivers not expecting bikes.
Until this trail and the Browns Hill Road work gets done, there aren't many easy or practical ways to access Homestead from town via bike.
it would be awesome if there was a lower level pedestrian/bike bridge that went from the little landing below the somerset development over to the waterfront. then you could ride from shadyside to the waterfront without having to be in traffic once, just take a ride through frick park and along the bottom of somerset all the way there.
it would be awesome if there was a lower level pedestrian/bike bridge that went from the little landing below the somerset development
Or a bike ferry?
hmm.. a bike ferry.. so like a raft.. that you hook your bike into like a trainer.. then you pedal/paddle your way across the river.
Navigation constraints mean that a cable ferry would never happen but it's a cool idea. And there's one upstream!
http://www.co.fayette.pa.us/fayette/cwp/view.asp?a=2091&q=515924
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/us/17ferry.html
A "sky ferry" underneath the Homestead Grays Bridge would probably be technically doable - but it would probably not be worth the cost.
There is a railroad bridge that appears to be unused near the Rankin Bridge. That might work.
Some expansion of the Gray's sidewalk with a "shared use" designation might be the most cost-effective.
Mick
The Rankin Hot Metal Bridge is owned by the county and has been tentatively, sort of, promised to a bike trail connection from the Carrie Furnace development. Maybe. That project is so far in the future that everything about it is still in the "wouldn't that be cool" phase.
I recall at one time there was talk about using the undercarrage of the Glennwood Bridge as a bike/pedestrian bridge but that too was a "wouldn't that be cool" possibility than any coherent plan. The problem with that is getting back down to ground level on the south side.
"Or a bike ferry?"
Hmm... paying to take the ferry is usually a good call. Fording the river next works, even when it's only 2 feet of water those damn oxen always find a way to drown and I lose all my spare parts!
@cburch Is there some secret trafficless way to get from Shadyside to Frick park that I'm unaware of? A secret tunnel perhaps?
*re-lurks*
didn't there used to be a PAT ferry from downtown to the waterfront?
@cburch Is there some secret trafficless way to get from Shadyside to Frick park that I'm unaware of? A secret tunnel perhaps?
ok so technically its point breeze. the bowling green on reynolds and the frick art and historical center are the northern end of the park. you can catch pretty mellow single track down to the tranquil path (the shared use path along the bottom of the valley) behind the bowling green and ride through the slag heaps to the trails behind somerset at the south end of the park.
Has anyone by any chance just tried riding up across the Munhall/West Mifflin "mitten"? I see Ravine St to Greensprings to Homeville. Wonder what that's like. Other than hilly.
I've ridden up an over that mitten. Before I took my first GAP trip I explored various alternatives.
Both over the mitten and the alternative of staying North/East of the Mon. Big Hills.
I find it easier to ride on (or often beside) 837, then cut through Duquesne on 2nd Ave.
Some of this is that I'm willing to go at a walking pace on the little path next to the road for a few hundred yards.
The roads over the "mitten" aren't too bad, though. If I were traveling at rush hour? I'd give it a try. It'd be ugly, for sure, but not like 837.
I prefer the Ravine/Greensprings/Homeville/Skyline route. Nothing very steep and for the most part the roads are congenial for cycling. The Dravosburg bridge is mediocre, but that's true of most of our bridges.
?!
?!
My sediments exactly.
kennywood should be contracted for bike ferries...
