I’m sure most if not all here are aware of the Rock Alley path that used to connect to Lawn Street in Oakland via a pedestrian underpass under the parkway.
I was pleased to see someone already added this to the wiki map for the Second Ave corridor study but it got me thinking, what is really holding this up from becoming a reality?
The owners of the land are holding it to be a public greenway. A couple of us could go out and clear a path in a weekend, it would just require someone (PennDOT?) to take down the fencing at the passage. Could it require an inspection to determine its structurally sound? It’s such a simple connection, why is it just sitting there unused? Is Peduto aware of this?
pit2mad
2019-03-04 19:53:16
Neat. I always wondered where those underpasses led. How do you get from very high up Oakland to very low down EFT? Are there stairs? Or am I thinking about the wrong (ie is Lawn already in the 4 Mile Run/Oakland holler?)
Edit from Google Street view lawn St looks high up on the hill.
edronline
2019-03-05 06:42:56
Found a website for Rock Alley. Looks like nothing has gone on with Rock Alley path since 2012. For those that don't know about it the answer is that the proposed path (following an old, now abandonded path down the hillside) was that it would start at Lawn Street, switchback its way down the hill and the connect via one of the peds tunnels to Second Avenue and the EFT.
http://rockalley.org/
edronline
2019-03-05 08:43:18
I know there is an old thread on this board from back in 2009-2012 era, in which a lot of this was already documented. When I get near an actual computer I’ll look it up.
stuinmccandless
2019-03-05 17:26:38
Coincidentally, I was just looking at the underpass this afternoon. Standing on EFT looking down, the gates visible from the trail were open. I couldn't tell about the gate where the underpass exits on Forbes.
I hope supporters of this trail will bring it up to the current 2nd Ave study. It would take a ramp from the trail down to the sidewalk to get the trail connection.
The
http://rockalley.org/ is pretty good.
maryshaw
2019-03-23 23:50:09
