At 10:00 am on Thursday November 14th, our paving subcontractor, Russell Standard Corp., reached N. State Street (SR 837) to complete paving the 2.44-mile section of trail between Large (Jefferson Hills Borough) and the City of Clairton. The western end of this trail segment connects to a 0.3-mile long Montour Trail bike lane constructed last year by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. Building of the bike lane was part of the Turnpike's relocation of Peters Creek Road and construction of the park-and-ride lot under their Mon-Fayette Expressway interchange at Route 51. The newly paved trail was built on land with a long history as railroad property.
In 1893, the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway Company acquired land for a branch along the north side of Peters Creek. The branch ended at the Bertha Consumers Coal Co. mine that was located across Piney Fork Road from the Bethel Park Sewage Treatment Plant in South Park Township. The Pennsylvania Railroad took over the railroad that served coal mines along the western side of the Monongahela River. The branch also served the Old Overholt Distillery in Large, maker of Monongahela Rye Whiskey. Westinghouse Electric later used these distillery buildings that are now owned by the Turnpike Commission.
In 1929, the Montour Railroad used a portion of the upper end of Pennsylvania Railroad branch to extend its Library Branch to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Snowden. The Montour Railroad purchased the part it used in 1962. In 1984, the Dick Corporation purchased the corridor between Large and Clairton when it needed railroad property to build a parking lot next to its headquarters office building on Route 51.
Allegheny County provided property acquisition and engineering services under a Public-Private Partnership Agreement with the Montour Trail Council. On November 14, 1997, Montour Trail Council acquired 2.0 miles of the corridor from the Dick Corporation between SR 837 and the recently paved portion of Peters Creek Road. Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) provided half of the $24,000 purchase price. By that time, the relatively cheaply built railroad branch had largely reverted back to nature.
The first few hundred feet of trail near SR 837 is built on a paper road called Ostermayer Avenue. This road had paralleled the railroad to provide access to some houses that were demolished when the Ravensburg Bridge was built. At our request, the City of Clairton vacated Ostermayer Avenue. We obtained possession of the northerly half because we are the adjacent property owner. Clairton Sanitary Authority granted us a license to use their southerly half. U.S. Steel Clairton Works donated their portion by deed. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission donated a 2334-foot trail easement to us for their portion along Peters Creek Road on August 7th of this year.
DCNR approved $100,000 for 50% trail development funding. The City of Clairton and the Borough of Jefferson Hills showed an early interest in providing local match by grading some trail right of way. However, Allegheny County provided the substantial portion of the required local match by donating an estimated 7,000 tons of milled asphalt material. The County trucked it to our site from nearby County road resurfacing projects. We have had very good experience using this material as base for the Panhandle Trail.
Volunteers led by Paul McKeown prepared for the construction work by removing trees that had grown up in the years since the railroad was removed. Volunteer turnout was a little thin initially because this trail segment is far from previous volunteer work sites, but larger numbers of workers helped out as time passed.
The prime contractor for this project was BKG Industries, Inc., owned by Bill, Gary and Ken Kisow. BKG previously completed a trailside stream bank protection project for us through the Montour Watershed Association.
BKG submitted the low bid of $109,243. Their work included installing trail drainage ditches, piping and culverts and placing 1530 tons of broken concrete for stream bank protection along Peters Creek. They spread milled asphalt pavement material on the large parking area at Route 837 and applied the millings up to 12" thick along the trail to provide a stable base where some soil conditions were poor. Some portions of the trail deviate from the original railroad alignment to permit the trail to be built on higher, drier ground.
Much of the trail is 10' below the 100-year design storm flood elevation. To prevent floods from washing away a crushed limestone surface, we obtained a $60,000 grant in 2001 from the Allegheny Regional Asset District for an asphalt surface. We chose a mix designed for low traffic volume roads. Its softness reduces cracking under light traffic. This asphalt will not reach its final hardness until the weather warms up in the springtime. Until then, it will not be suitable for roller blading.
Volunteers have installed most of the barrier posts and a gate at Clairton to keep cars off of the trail. In September, over 60 Bombardier Transportation volunteers did some post- construction tree trimming and trash pickup as part of the United Way Day of Caring. BKG will return to grade the trail edges. Concrete wheel stops, donated by BKG to separate the parking area from the trail, need to be anchored into place by volunteers. They will also install safety fencing next to Peters Creek to complete the trail this spring. If you would like to help with any of these volunteer tasks, contact Paul McKeown at 412-835-6692 or mckeownp@libcom.com.
An opening ceremony has not yet been planned.
- Dave Wright