Allegheny County buys link to hiking, bike trail

Thursday, April 26, 2007
By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A key piece of the puzzle that makes up the 335-mile hiking and biking trail from Point State Park to Washington, D.C., is about to be put into place.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and U.S. Steel Chairman John Surma will announce this afternoon that the county will take possession of 1.89 miles of land where gas lines once ran from the Clairton Works to the Homestead Works.

That land, which runs from Munhall, along the south bank of the Monongahela River through West Mifflin under Kennywood Park and into Duquesne, is property the county has been trying to acquire for more than two years to fill in one of the few remaining gaps in the trail.

The Steel Valley Trail Council is working to develop an off-road route from the South Side in Pittsburgh to the Youghiogheny River Trail in McKeesport and the Montour Trail in Clairton.

The larger network of trails from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., is called the Great Allegheny Passage.

John Armstrong, a spokesman for U.S. Steel said the company’s part of today’s news conference is to turn the land over to the county for the trail.

Kevin Evanto, Mr. Onorato’s spokesman, would not comment on the nature of the news conference except to confirm it was about the trail.

Two years ago, Dennis Davin, the county’s director of development, had said the county was eyeing the land where the gas lines were located as part of the trail.

The construction of the Southside Works, the Steelers practice facility and The Waterfront along the Monongahela River banks all incorporated trail access into the design and planning. However, a key piece is still missing in West Homestead, where the Sandcastle water park occupies the riverbank, so the trail is incomplete from the Glenwood Bridge to the edge of the Waterfront.

(Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699. )

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