BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

what! i'm going to check this out asap.

holy shit, that's awesome. i might have to make a bike trip for this.

I am always happy to see new bike trails. It is great to see they are chipping away at the downtown to mckeesport section of the GAP.

Just curious....What's the mileage gap between Rankin and Duquesne?? I was thinking of riding from the Waterfront to Mckeesport this weekend if the gap isn't too long of a walk.Are you allowed to pass thru this gap???

so, this bridge is now open?

ie doesn't look like this?

The wall has been torn down. They also have bike logos painted on the sidewalk and crosswalks for a few blocks in mckeesport. It is not perfect but it will get you to the yough river trail if you follow the signs.

yes!

just connecting the dots here... i dug this map up for another thread but between the two it seems like the trail is almost done... http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2061988

there's a ribbon cutting this friday, 10 am

here's the info:

You are cordially invited

to join the Allegheny County Executive,

the Mayor of the City of Duquesne,

the Steel Valley Trail Council,

and the Allegheny Trail Alliance

to celebrate the ribbon cutting for the

Duquesne Tunnel & Trail

October 2, 2009 ~ 10:00 a.m.

at the RIDC Industrial Park in Duquesne

Arriving by car: enter Grant Ave. from Rt. 837

Arriving by bicycle: park in McKeesport RIDC and

come over the Riverton Bridge

For more information call: 724-537-6905

RSVP: admin@atatrail.org

Destination: DUQUESNE

along the Great Allegheny Passage

…135 continuous miles finished…one more gapto go!

i should say this is on the new tunnel

Questions:

Tunnel?

Bike directions: "Park in McKeesport RDIC...." ???

BIKE directions ? ? ?

Mick

ya, don't you know that to ride your bike you must first transport it via your SUV to a trail entrance!? DUH

i'm guessing it's this tunnel

it was part of the new construction for the highway

haha, weird tunnel

Huh. I wonder how many Pittsburghers you can get thru that tunnel without them braking at the entrance.

weird tunnel, because it was an afterthought.

The bridge and abutments were designed and maybe already advertised for bid by the county when the trail council wedged this idea in.

Why the tunnel and not a path between the railroad and the abutment - where the excavator is in the photo? Ask the railroad...

Just curious,but how far is the gap distance from Rankin bridge to ribbon cutting in Duquesne?? I was thinking of riding my bike to Rankin Bridge and walking the gap to Duquesne.

Oh, no wonder then. I didn't connect the fact that it's the bike tunnel....*facepalm* Wow. And it's only Weds.

I think the concrete walls above the tunnel would be a great place for a mural.

I may go to the ribbon cutting. Also, I heard they bumped it back to 10:30.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09275/1002566-100.stm

I guess the mon warf would be the next section of trail to be finished since they are already working on it.

http://post-gazette.com/pg/09276/1002742-147.stm

woo hoo!

Psyched.

I spent little time yesterday exploring from the Rankin bridge. Downstream, there's a short stretch of nice asphalt trail extending between the Waterfront and the Rankin bridge. Unfortunately, it doesn't yet connect to anything at all at either end. There's no safe way to get on it at the bridge end. And at the waterfront end it's reachable from behind Guardian storage, but that's somewhat trespassy.

Upstream from the bridge nothing has changed. Take it on faith -- if you strike out upstream, south side of the tracks, you'll find the unimproved pipeline road, which is beautiful in that postindustrial W. PA landscape way. When they put limestone on top of it it will still be nice (but not as much). We didn't have time to find out whether it was properly connected to the Duquesne trail yet or not.

just being able to cut out that section of 837 will be wonderful

http://post-gazette.com/pg/09278/1003125-147.stm

Did I sound negative? Didn't mean to -- what's there now is great, what will be there is even better. But the news reports are a little bit misleading. Yes, maybe there's only one mile left to negotiate, but other parts of the trail are definitely incomplete are not rideable or even findable by -- well, if you aren't dedicated you won't find it.

I guess we're still 2 years from final completion.

I read somewhere that the waterfront to duq part was going to be finished by summer2010, which would be awesome. If I can find where I read that i'll put it up, probly one of these post gazette links.

if you're freaked out by going through the guardian storage lot you can follow the road a little further and take a dirt path to the left just before you go up to the bridge... its not nearly as nice though.

hows the old pipeline trail? did you go all the way down to kennywood?

yeah, the PG articles talked about it. i summed it up in this blog post:

http://bike-pgh.org/2009/10/updates-pittsburgh-to-washington-dc-bike-trail-one-step-closer-to-completion/

Photos from the ribbon cutting can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsriver/sets/72157622503637310

just rode this for the first time. wow, so great. increases the fun of riding to mckeesport exponentially. the bridges is sooooo nice to ride over toooo. ahhh.

man, but what a bummer riding through mckeesport's section of the trail. they painted bike symbols on the sidewalk in a pretty busy section. i hope that's temporary. the new section of trail down by their riverfront are is really nice tho

How do you get down there? 837 and/or the early-stage trails others have noted?

Erok and I's group stopped on the bridge for a spell both ways. Such an amazing improvement! You should have seen the smiles and laughs all around for this one.

We took the south side trail to Sandcastle, got up to 837, followed it to just across the bridge past Kennywood, and then went roughly 2 intersections into Duquesne and back down the hill to connect to the trail and then the bridge.