Montour Trail-Letter

Volume 11, Issue 5

September/October, 2000

Greetings to Montour Trail Members and friends. A lot of activity has occurred, since the last issue of the Montour Trail newsletter. Our "superb" newsletter editor has to limit contributors' words to fit the eight page format. Thus, I thought I would provide information on many items in a condensed format. Please call or e-mail us, if you desire more details.

Hurray! The new improved multicolored Montour Trail Map has arrived. It looks marvelous. Thanks to our friend Bill Metzger for designing & creating this eye-catching piece. Also thanks to my good friend Mr. James Steigerwald, who is a regional Vice President for National City. Jim was instrumental in acquiring a donation from National City of $3,000 to pay for the total cost of printing 20,000 copies of the map.

On August 7, Tom Gallant, a Findlay Township Supervisor, conducted a ceremony to celebrate the lighting of the Enlow Tunnel. (See article.)

In a meeting on August 3, the Montour Trail Council gave a notice to Mackin Engineering to proceed with a contract to design & engineer the remaining unfinished sections of the trail in Washington County. This $538,000 Federal TEA 21 contract is part of a $3,000,000 reimbursement agreement with district 12-0 of PennDOT to complete the trail in Washington County. Ed Taylor, an MTC volunteer is the manager for this project and Rich Glass district 12-0 engineer is the PennDOT representative. Mahendra Bhalakia and Mr. Robert Genter of Mackin are the engineers on the project. Mackin will have the first construction project ready for bid by mid-January of 2001.

On July 13th a second monthly meeting was held with SE Technologies, which has the contract to provide engineering & design to complete the trail in Allegheny County from the county line at Peters to Snowden Road. Dave Wright, the trail director of development is the manager for this project.

Two meetings were held with the Turnpike Commission to discuss the extension of the trail to the eastern side of Route 51 from Clairton. The Turnpike Commission has tentatively agreed to extend the trail to about 300 feet before RT51. This will be accomplished when Peters Creek Road is moved closer to the Creek next year. Due to space restrictions the remaining 300 feet will be a challenge. The MTC hopes to have the trail cross RT51 at a pedestrian crossing near the Large Hotel.

On July 23-25, the MTC set up an information booth at the National Conference on Transportation and Environment at the Hilton Hotel in Pittsburgh. Their were over 500 attendees from all over the country. We were able to provide useful information to organizations that are creating trails and greenways in other parts of the country. We also had interesting dialogs with the Allegheny County Port Authority and the Pittsburgh International Airport long range planning committee. A letter is being sent to the airport planning group to consider a connecting branch to the Montour near Imperial.

On June 17, the Montour Trail Council had a group of nine individuals ride 44 miles from McKeesport to Connellsville on the Yough Trail. This ride was in support and in conjunction with the ATA ride from Mckeesport to Washington, DC. Of particular interest was that our members convinced Rick Sebak of WQED to ride with us to Connellsville. Rick may be producing in the near future a documentary on national trails.

On June 27 thru July 2 the MTC set up an information booth at the Allegheny County Fair. Peter Kohnke headed up this effort. It was a good opportunity to update the South Hills Area on the progress of the trail.

On July 26th we received an e-mail from a Jim Toth of Ohio. He had just completed a solo self contained "730" mile bike ride starting at mile "0" on the Montour Trail to Washington DC and then back to Mckeesport. Wow! That's a heck of a ride.

Happy Trails!