BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I'm curious, too.

I guess there is some of the trail between the SS and Mckeesport that is finished, but I don't know what parts, how to access them, nor if they are long enough to be useful.

When I last went over the McKeeport-Duquesne bridge, I could see ramps going up to the bike bridge, but I did no see any signs pointing to or trails leading to those ramps from either side of the river.

A trail from the Homestead Grays Bridge to McKeesport would be useful even if it isn't as good as all the way to the SS trail.

Last I checked, the SS trail still ends 100 yds before the Glenwood bridge.

Mick

I was out there yesterday and there's still gaps between the Glenwood bridge to the Waterfront and also at the end of the waterfront to Mckeesport. Nothing,and I mean absolutely anything, has been done for several years!! It was suppose to be completed last year for christ sake!! I also read that there's soon suppose to be an Allegheny Linear trail Park.I read about it more than 2 years ago,(May of 2007). I haven't heard any news since then. Did anyone else hear or read about this a couple years ago??Are they still planning to build this trail or is it all now just a smokescreen??

As far as I know, all of the connector work done thus far between Duquesne and the Waterfront is as of this year. The Riverton bridge is coming along, and I believe significant chunks of trail along the river are currently under construction.

Aside from the chronic Sandcastle access problem, it seems to be proceeding slowly, but steadily.

With regards to the linear trail park, I believe several of the townships along the Allegheny are in the process of planning their trail systems and connectors. However, until the planning is done and actual designs are approved, not much in the way of physical change is going to happen for a while. Getting funding takes lots and lots and lots of paperwork; when you have to get funding to do the feasibility study to get funding to get the surveys and proposals drawn up before you can request the funding for construction, that's REALLY lots of paperwork.

The trail is pretty much complete from mckeesport to duqesne but, it is not open yet because of construction of a flyover road off of 837. I think this section will open up sometime this year (once the 837 construction is finished).

There is a mile of asphalt trail under the Rankin bridge that doesn't connect with anything right now.

2010 is way to optimistic. 2015 completion seems more realistic to me considering they need to build 2 more bridges yet (yikes).

I do wish it would be sooner than 2015...it would be really nice to bike from downtown to the Waterfront and beyond along the river....on pavement. Heh, w/o cars.

I'd read somewhere a few years back that one of the bridges on the Montour Trail is actually a piece of a movie set. They were planning on merely demolishing the bridge and sending the pieces to a landfill, when someone from the bike community intervened. IIRC, over a weekend, a team of volunteers dismantled the set and got the pieces off-site, and a few months later, after footings were poured, voila, bike bridge.

How big are these needed bridges? Can we do that again? Can someone, somewhere in the next six years, ID a suitable span, temporary for its original purpose, but good enough to handle a bike path?

If the bridge is made of hollow steel sections that are welded together and about 100 feet long, then it's from the movie Sudden Death. The bridge was "blown up" in the movie.

There was another bridge that was donated which was made from I beams and angle sections, but I don't think it was from a movie. This bridge, if it was finally used, was intended to be cut in half in order to facilitate construction.

Any of this making sense?

I'm pretty sure my source was an issue of InPittsburgh Newsweekly, so pre-2002. Doesn't matter what it was made of, really, the primary point is that temporary spans are put up and then taken down all the time for one reason or another, somewhere within 100 miles of here.

Get some specs on what we need, keep your eyes open, talk it up, and maybe we can bypass some of the paperwork, lower the construction costs, and/or shave months/years off the completion date.