BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

paging Sarapgh2, she probably knows. I can't remember what I've heard about this.

I belive they want to start to develope the land around carrie furnace. The first step would be to make easier access from rankin bridge. I am just going off rumors, but if this is whats going on, I wonder of the municpality? swissvale? maybe rankin?

This "flyover" to link a brownfield site to a major surface transportation artery in the mon valley is very similar to the "McKeesport Flyover Project.

I guess the County has met it's bonding capacity for financing bridge construction, so they're applying broad language to obtain TIGER grant to build a new bridge for "economic development". See page 12 of PDF

Ah, I see I've been paged. Sloaps is totally correct. This flyover was the critical first link of a redevelopment of the land over there. The idea is somewhat similar to what happened on the other side of Mon, with more emphasis on residential than retail. The Carrie Furnace site is a big part of this and will stay intact. The flyover allows more development of it as tourism destination because it means traffic has a way of getting over there.

Bike trail connection into the existing Duck Hollow trail is a part of all the plans. The biggest issue over there is that the trail can't connect into Hazelwood without getting around the railroad depot at the end of that trail. There's something like 8 lines there.

In terms of the municipality, this is a big headache. The development spans several including Rankin, Braddock, and something else I can't remember (Swisshelm Park?). I believe it's totally outside of city of Pgh.

I cant imagine who would want to live down there? It's a rather busy railroad, and so close to the tracks. Living really close, in fact I can look out my window and see carrie furnace, and the waterfront, with no leaves on the trees it sounds like the trains are going through my backyard. Me thinking river view section 8. I also heard that swissvale wanted to put an emergency road in somewhere. I hope to be gone from here before they destroy my wonderful view

Thanks for the info.

Is the McKeesport flyover that giant, ugly bridge over the train tracks? I can't complain too much so long as I can gain access to the GAP from Duck Hollow, especially if the hot metal bridge is renovated.

B.S. "I cant imagine who would want to live down there?" They've said that with every new brownfield site in Pgh. Who would want to shop there? Who would want to work there? So we'll see. That doesn't help your view though.

rsprake You can already access the GAP from Duck Hollow. Just get up onto the sidewalk of the Hi-Level Bridge and ride down into the waterfront. Or if you like a thrill, ride right on the road. (I don't normally advocate riding on sidewalks, but this is one case where I do.)

This is a big site, and a big redevelopment project with lots of facets... it is also a top priority of Allegheny County.

The flyover ramp will provide access to the site from that weird loop that currently connects the north end of the Rankin Bridge to Braddock Avenue in the community of Braddock.

There is an old system of bridge abutments asociated with a (former) Hot Metal bridge across the Mon River about midway down the site. As far as I know, there are plans to provide bicycle and pedestrian access from the Carrie Furnace site to the southside of the Mon River (Waterfront/GAP) as part of the overall site development plan. Timing is yet TBD, and is presumed to be at least partially dependent on funding availability.

Still sounds like a connection between the Duck Hollow and South Side trails via the Glenwood Bridge would still be just what the doctor ordered. Who knows how long it will take to develop a trail from Duck Hollow along the Mon to link up with the Eliza Furnace Trail?

Who would we need to talk to see about getting a ramp from Duck Hollow Trail up to Glenwood Bridge, like the one at the N end of Fort Duq Br? Put that one piece of infrastructure in place and you've opened up an enormous watershed of level cycling in metro Pittsburgh!

does this mean the mon-fayette expressway is dead?

No, not at all. Actually a portion of the MFX in West Virginia was just opened up last July. And don't forget that all the work to Bates Street/Second Ave interchange and redoing the Jail Trail bridge was done by the Turnpike Commission in advance of the MFX. The project is very much still alive.

i mean the section through the carrie furnace site.

a ramp from the Rankin bridge down to Carrie Furnace has been a part of the MFX plans. I'm assuming that this flyover ramp is part of this and is just one more little piece of the MFX that's getting done.

It's horrifying to think about all of the potential for that riverside property has and how we are going to just hand it over a large portion of it to a highway.

These people have never heard of "Peak Oil", let alone "Peak Car". We need to inform them.

It makes me cringe to think of spending the millions on finishing that highway when it could do so much more good in mass transit and bike/ped infrastructure. Imagine if we could dip into the money committed for the MFX, it could be so amazing.

What our transportation system does not have is a way to rescind an approval. This is an excellent example. It barely made sense when it was first dreamed up 40 years ago, and now, with car use declining, the only thing standing in the way of its being built is $5 billion. Yet there's no way to stop it.

Had that same line of thought been applied to the North Shore Connector, it would have been built anyway, as it connected six major regional facilities (two stadiums, CCAC, Science Ctr, casino, and a hotel, and provided parking for 2,000 downtown commuters.

The MFX cannot say any of that, and costs an order of magnitude more.

Can someone please find usage statistics for Toll 66, Toll 60 and the Findlay Connector?

with car use declining

really?

I think nationally vehicle miles are down 1 or 2 %. There have been series of months since about 08 with the recession that miles have gone down.

Despite continuing to build spread out infrastructure I'd say miles will continue to be flat because fewer people will be able to afford to make extra trips outside of commuting and essential shopping.

some graphs:

http://www.ssti.us/2012/02/motor-vehicle-travel-demand-continues-long-term-downward-trend-in-2011/

so evidently it predates the recession, so other forces are at work. I don't know if we have as much of a decline here because Western PA continues to sprawl and use up more land per person than the national average (need to find where I read that factoid). Land use has to be absolutely key to all this.

Car use declining is the best news I've heard about the US since we elected a black man president!