Montour Trail-Letter

Volume 11, Issue 4

July/August, 2000

The Montour Trail Council officially opened a new segment of trail in South Hills on Friday, May 12, at 3:00 PM. The new segment is approximately one mile long (0.8) and parallels a new 4,700-foot extension of Piney Fork Road that crosses from South Park Township into Jefferson Hills Borough. Both the Piney Fork road extension and the multi-use trail (10 ft. wide with an asphalt surface) were built by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission at a cost of about $1.2 million. Adjacent to the roadway and paved trail are 4.5 acres of replacement wetlands also built as part of the Mon/Fayette Expressway at a cost of some $378,000.

The Turnpike Commission became involved in the Montour Trail project because construction of the Mon/Fayette Expressway in Jefferson Hills required some rearrangement of neighboring roadways and affected potential trail right-of-way options.

The dedication ceremony was brief. MTC's president, Dennis Pfeiffer, welcomed all those present, and thanked the Turnpike Commission for working hard to preserve a safe suitable right-of-way for the trail. Speakers for the event were: Frank J. Kempf, Jr., the Turnpike's Assistant Chief Engineer for development projects/programs; Linda Boxx, President of the Allegheny Trail Alliance (which is working to complete a nationally prominent rails-to-trails connection from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.; Mike Houser, the Design Liaison Engineer for the PA Turnpike Commission; and Paul Walker, Supervisor from South Park Township.

After the ribbon was cut and trail was officially opened, talks with Mr. Kempf revealed that even though this was the first time the Turnpike Commission has ever built a section of trail for the Montour Trail Council, they did build a bridge over the Turnpike for the Laurel Highland Trail, (0.8 mile). Although not a Montour Trail member (yet), Mr. Kempf enjoys trails and is a member of the Appalachian Trail. He has hiked the Appalachian Trail through New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. Now that the MTC has completed 31 miles of a planned 51 mile trail from Coraopolis to Clairton, maybe we can convince him to hike the Montour Trail!