BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

There's no functional impact on the trail. There's only a new dip. As long as they don't screw up the grade it should hardly make a difference. But I was wondering, where will the people living there go for everyday shopping? Ideally they would bike over to the SS; of course it would be tempting to just hop in the car...

Where did you get this from? A single (obfuscated) link to a google drive copy of a sketched image does not a proposal make. I have no idea what what I'm looking at here, and while I've heard a (very) little about proposals to add to PTC, I don't recall any of it involving housing.

They are seeking to replace the wood ramps which block the sidewalk with a level trail access point, bike sharing station, and sloping the trail so it is level with second avenue.

Assuming this is accurate, I wouldn't be outright opposed, but it wouldn't be my first choice. Given how far above the road the trail is, my preference would be something more like a pair of ramps from trail level down to street level, like the trail's Hot Metal Bridge access in reverse.

can you identify exactly where this goes? thanks

A PG article about the housing proposal, from February. I assume the wooden ramp is the one shown here, which was constructed as part of the detour for the Bates Street bridge replacement project (next to an existing concrete ramp that, I'm guessing, was too narrow for ADA requirements). At that point, the trail seems to be only 18" or so above the sidewalk, so lowering it doesn't seem like a big deal. (It does start climbing up to the Bates Street bridge around there somewhere, so I guess it's possible there would a steeper climb. Or just a longer one? I can't really tell.) I think the main trail impact will be simply the need to close the trail to do the work. But I find it hard to object to a trail closure whose aim is to provide nicer trail access to a group of future trailside residents, as long as some safe detour can be devised (which, granted, might be hard).

Sorry for not being clear on where I got this from, this is from a City of Pittsburgh Planning Commission presentation which was prepared by Strada Architects and Walnut Capital as the developer. The link is here: http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/schedule65/presentation-65-708.pdf

Thanks for posting that. Looks interesting. Across Second Avenue from the trail and its adjacent proposed bike share station, their plans also show a "public bike court", a restaurant with outdoor seating and/or a plaza (PDF page 66), and giant bike sculptures. Of course, what they actually build might be quite different.