New Trail to connect Beechwood Blvd to East Liberty Blvd
-Photo by Mac Howison
On July 22, we reported about a meeting of stakeholders about a new trail segment along Penn Ave in East Liberty. A major element of the Bakery Row development in East Liberty, this brand new trail is an integral segment of of the bike route network that will connect all the East End parks from Highland Park via Highland Ave and East Liberty Blvd to Mellon Park; and then connect to Frick via Beechwood Blvd, and on to Schenley via Forbes, Wightman, and Beacon.
With the new trail, cyclists will be able to avoid a particularly fast moving section of Penn Ave. The plan also calls for widening of Penn Ave, a move that will most likely make this stretch even less hospitable to cyclists, and will hopefully not harm the beautiful old trees that line the Ave.
Not a member of Bike Pittsburgh? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership
NEWSLETTER
2 Comments
“and will hopefully not harm the beautiful old trees that line the Ave.”
Yes, and hopefully Bike Pittsburgh will reach out to the neighborhood and environmentalists next time and not negotiate without us next time. We have an asphalt road thru the park that could have been designed with permeable paving and not been so wide. 12 feet is to still too much for the park.
Lets not HOPE for a healthy tree, lets make sure it HAPPENS and reach beyond our special interests.
Citywatcher, with all due respect, the harm that is coming to the trees is much more of a result of PennDOT widening the road for cars. Pedestrians and cyclists still need to be accommodated through this area and a compromise needed to be reached. Please call Bill Peduto to inquire why permeable pavement was not feasible for this area. In short, it’s expensive and requires special vacuums to make it function properly. The funds did not exist and it wasn’t something the City could invest in.
AND it wasn’t BikePGH who designed this pathway and scheduled the outreach to the community. It was Walnut Capital and Astorino architects who designed it and it was the job of ELDI to reach out to the community. I think they actually did a decent job of outreach scheduling at least two public meetings. I know Danielle Crumrine from FPUF showed up and spoke up on behalf of trees and I also said we didn’t want to see further harm to the trees. This is the result. Sorry your voice was not heard.