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Old 07-09-2010, 09:11 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,864,150 times
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An update on recent progress in completing the bike trail to DC:

County bridges all gaps but one in Pittsburgh-to-D.C. trail

Some excerpts and a picture:



Quote:
Construction cranes on Wednesday eliminated two of the biggest obstacles to completing a 335-mile biking and hiking trail from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., a project that has been in the works for 35 years. Crews hoisted prefabricated bridges over active freight rail lines in Whitaker and Duquesne along the Monongahela River. Construction of a 21/2-mile trail segment linking the bridges to the existing trail will begin by fall, with completion expected by January, said Jack Paulik, project manager for Regional Trail Corp. . . .

A 170-foot-long, 62-ton bridge erected in Whitaker crosses six sets of tracks operated by Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Railroad Co. A 110-foot-long, 37-ton bridge in the RIDC industrial park in Duquesne crosses three sets of Norfolk Southern tracks. The bridges will provide "a spectacular view of the river, the working river," Mr. Paulik said. . . .

The two bridges erected on Wednesday are about 2 miles apart and will be connected with a trail along U.S. Steel's former coke gas pipeline, which the company donated in 2007. The segment will hug the hillside between Route 837 and the river, connecting to McKeesport to the south and The Waterfront complex to the north.
Pretty cool stuff. But there is one lingering problem:

Quote:
All that will remain incomplete on the Great Allegheny Passage after that is a one-mile stretch through Sandcastle Waterpark. Negotiations with the park owners have not produced an agreement that will allow the trail to go through. "There's no solution just yet," Allegheny County spokesman Kevin Evanto said. "We're kind of at the same place we were a couple months ago."
Hopefully Sandcastle's owner (a company in Spain) will feel some more pressure now that it is the last remaining problem.
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Old 07-09-2010, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Western PA
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If anyone had told me thirty years ago that there would be a trail through the industrial Mon Valley I would have laughed. But now it seems to be meshing pretty well. The area still has a rugged industrial look to it (there is still the large ET and Irvin works of US Steel, plus a lot of other manufacturing throughout the area). It's kind of a trip through industrial history.
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Old 07-09-2010, 10:09 AM
 
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With "Rust Belt Chic" all the rage these days, I could see that becoming one of the more popular parts of the trail.
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Old 07-09-2010, 12:38 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
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****ing Sandcastle owners.
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Old 07-09-2010, 12:42 PM
 
Location: ɥbɹnqsʇʇıd
4,599 posts, read 6,683,810 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronClark View Post
****ing Sandcastle owners.
I remember when Sandcastle and Kennywood were sold a few years ago to that company in Spain. A spokesperson for Kennywood exclaimed, "Kennywood would not become a taco stand". I'm still laughing about that.
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Old 07-09-2010, 02:01 PM
 
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Why does it need to go through, as opposed to around, Sandcastle?
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Old 07-09-2010, 02:22 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by caroline2 View Post
Why does it need to go through, as opposed to around, Sandcastle?
The trail is coming along the river from both sides into the Sandcastle site. Moreover, right next to the Sandcastle site is a rail and industrial complex you'd probably have to go around too, with more bridges over the rail lines like the ones in the article above.

So it would be expensive, inconvenient, and break up the planned run along the river on the last leg into Downtown. Not impossible, I suppose, but it would be much better if they can work something out to stay along the river.
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Old 07-09-2010, 03:12 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
So it would be expensive, inconvenient, and break up the planned run along the river on the last leg into Downtown. Not impossible, I suppose, but it would be much better if they can work something out to stay along the river.
There is plenty of room along the river right now for this proposed trail to go through. There is just a dirt/gravel access road between the lazy river and the real river. I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be very hard to convert that into a bike path without having to move any park attractions. I think the biggest issue for sandcastle is how they would separate the people on the trail from the paying customers in the park.

Last edited by airwave09; 07-09-2010 at 03:25 PM..
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Old 07-09-2010, 03:18 PM
 
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As I recall their nominal issue was potential safety/liability concerns. I suspect in truth someone wants to get paid off in some way.
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Old 07-09-2010, 03:25 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
I suspect in truth someone wants to get paid off in some way.
It hardly unseemly to want to get paid for the use of one's waterfront property.
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