BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

wow, i had no idea this was going on... does anyone know anything about that rail line that comes out of aspinwall and goes to east libery/ wilkinburg? that would be amazing if that became a trail... i bet the view from those bridges along washington blvd are spectacular.

The publicity on this has been fair, at best, considering how many people could ride their bikes in to the city every day. I'm just wondering where the carpark will be for riders hopping on that trail. Aspinwall is jammed everyday. I'm thinking half the funding will have to go towards paving over a bunch of riverfront property. Parking at 3 Rivers Rowing club in Millvale into city = my favorite "boring" trail ride.

this info needs to find its way to the Fox Chapel, Harmar, Oakmont, Verona, and up-river cyclists and communities in general.

The farther biking trails get established up-river, the more likely biking trails will be established farther up-river, providing for some wicked fantastic commuting and recreation in some communities that feel pretty trapped into "driving to ridewalk/" right now.

I don't have many contacts there, but I think ALMKLM has a few. Calling ALMKLM?

I'm thinking half the funding will have to go towards paving over a bunch of riverfront property.

Their site's FAQ says there's limited parking, and it seems like they intend to keep it that way. You have to cross railroad tracks to get to it, and there's no gate, so they think too much traffic there could cause an accident. That's why they've ruled out soccer and baseball field.s

SO the bike trail part would be more of a connector, not a park-and-ride area.

A few clarifications:

@poboy: The Borough of Aspinwall is NOT buying the property. A group of residents from Aspinwall, O'Hara Twp, and Fox Chapel formed about a year ago and have been working with the Fox Chapel District Association and Friends of the Riverfront to raise the funds necessary to purchase what is now a private marina with the intent of creating a public park.

To date they have raised about $2 million, but still have approximately $300K to go by September.

@mark (see other thread)

@e.l.: The park as currently envisioned is not strictly a "bike path" gateway like Millvale. In any event, within close proximity to this location is the Aspinwall Mnicipal parking lot, and Waterworks Mall nearby has acres of parking.

Also, Borough ordinances limit paved parking in that zoning district to 30% of the total area. Combined with the applicable setbacks, the Park won't likely have a great deal of parking, and therefore won't consume much funding. Speaking of funding, the current effort is just for the purchase of the property. If they raise the $2.3 MIL and complete the purchase, then there will be another fundraising effort to raise money for the build-out.

@ejwme: there have been many, many events over the last 6-8 months to provide public information and make public the plans. There have also been a lot of fund raising events that have been covered - albeit mostly in the local "Herald."

Personally, whether it is via this park, or a Freeport Road connection to the planned alignment of the trail through Sharpsburg, I can't wait for the trail to come out our way - seven miles of flat trail, and boom, you're downtown!

@Steven: the at-grade rail crossing, combined with pedestrian crossings of Freeport Road are big concerns. However, the focus to date has been on raising the money to purchase they property. It seems to be the hope of many involved to work with the railroad and PaDot to sort out safe means of crossing the RR and Freeport Road. (And I think the reality is this would be a long-term effort.)

This Park concept is a really amazing opportunity for folks that live in or near that part of the valley - including the East End of Pittsburgh). A lot of people see it as a keystone to reclamation of the riverfront in that part of the valley. As a cyclist, when the trail extends out this way, it is going to be a really great stepping stone to a lot of great road riding up in Fo Chapel, Indiana Twp, etc. However, the primary focus of the Park isn't strictly cycling-oriented.

see, I knew you'd know what the deal was

re: "isn't strictly cycling-oriented":

...if you build it, they will come...

It's not heaven, ejwme. It's Aspinwall.

*giggle*

hey, compared to what's on the south side of the river, it's looking pretty nice. Yinz have a path all the way to Millvale, but we only have to 20th. The path/grass really is always longer/greener on the other bank/side.

i started that other thread because i didn't want to hijack this one... i think that would be an amazing connector for this park though and turn it into a kind of cycling hub... there is another trail system starting south of ford city that goes up for 40+ miles... so if this trail just gets a bit further up river there will be another 80ish miles on the other side of the GAP... gettin close to 500 uninterupted miles!

Our local group, along with Friends of the Riverfront announced they have raised the funds necessary to purchase the Aspinwall Marina property to turn it eventually into a public park.

It sounds like the planned bike path (which had been routed along Freeport Road) may have a new home, at least through Aspinwall!

Now comes the perhaps more difficult part - designing a park and raising the money to build it.

Thanks to all of you who showed an interest and/or made a donation.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11246/1171921-54-0.stm

YAY!

heh... designing the park...

made me think of Cosby's bit about parks when he was a kid, consisting of broken glass and spinny things and hard rough surfaces and nobody ever got hurt.

The best parks have spinny things. As a kid I flat out refused to play in any park without at least one decent spinny thing (though allowances were made for climbing trees). If I wasn't close to vomiting, it just wasn't any fun

But I suppose a park is different from a playground.