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Countdown on Completion of the Great Allegheny Passage:
Work Set to Begin on Last Piece of Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C. Trail
This country's longest multi-purpose trail is about to get longer, and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Greenway Sojourn 2007 participants may get a glimpse of the work in progress as they cycle from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh on the grand opening ride for the Great Allegheny Passage.
The last nine-mile section of the hiking/biking trail linking Pittsburgh and the nation's capital has taken a major step toward completion. The United States Steel Corporation (USS) has announced the transfer of a nearly two-mile corridor to the Regional Trail Corporation for trail development.
John Surma, president & CEO of USS, announced the property transfer April 26, thanking Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato for his assistance. The property is the former coke gas pipeline right-of-way located behind Kennywood Park overlooking the Monongahela River in the Mon Valley near Pittsburgh.
The Great Allegheny Passage is a 132-mile, multiple-use trail system completed from McKeesport to Cumberland, Md., where it joins the 184-mile long C&O Canal Towpath, thus providing the link to our nation's capital. The trail travels through a scenic and historical corridor, roughly following early footpaths leading west from tidal areas of Virginia. The last nine-mile gap between McKeesport and the city of Pittsburgh is part of the Steel Valley section. Surma and Onorato have formed a leadership team to help complete the Passage in time for Pittsburgh's 250th celebration next year.
"Allegheny County is taking a real leadership role," says Hannah Hardy, president of the Steel Valley Trail Council. "A terrific team is helping us. Without the commitment and focus of Dan Onorato and his staff, we could not possibly achieve this in time for the 250th celebration of the region next year.
"As part of this acquisition, [USS] prepared a great site for trail development," adds Hardy, acknowledging that the company has made a major donation with cleanup of the property, a former brownfield site. "We can acquire the property and move quickly into design and construction. We hope to be breaking ground on several sections of what we call 'the gap in the GAP' (Great Allegheny Passage) by early summer."
In the urban Mon Valley, this new stretch of trail will give the community and trail users a sense of being in a natural setting because of the surrounding tree canopy—unique for the Steel Valley Trail—and the view of the river.
"This is yet another indication of the tremendous and steadfast support for this trail from both county and corporate leadership," says Linda McKenna Boxx, president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, whose groups are building and maintaining the Passage.
"In no uncertain terms, this last nine-mile section is the most challenging," says Boxx. "Up to this point, we were building trail on abandoned rail lines. Here in the Mon Valley, there are still many active rail lines and many active industries. We have to create the corridor, assembling properties one by one. And there are difficult and expensive construction issues, such as bridges over the river and over railroad tracks."
A very successful corporate-community partnership has made this new trail progress possible. USS dismantled the coke gas pipeline and sold the land at discount to the Regional Trail Corporation, based in West Newton, Pa. Funding for the acquisition came from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Allegheny Regional Asset District, and the Allegheny Trail Alliance.
The 2007 Greenway Sojourn is officially celebrating the connection of the Passage to the C&O Canal Towpath, drawing attention to the importance of finishing this gap in the trail. Several hundred Sojourn cyclists will ride with a police escort on-road for about seven miles from McKeesport into downtown Pittsburgh on June 30, the tour's final day.
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