Kathy Liebler
                        Director of Public Information


C  O  M  M  I  S  S  I  O  N       N  E  W  S       R  E  L  E  A  S  E

Contact:  

Joe Agnello, (724) 755-5262
(724) 755-5142 fax
e-mail: jagnello@paturnpike.com

May 11, 2000

 

MONTOUR TRAIL COUNCIL TO OPEN NEW SEGMENT 
BUILT AS PART OF MON/FAYETTE EXPRESSWAY

The Montour Trail Council will officially open the newest part of its trail system in Pittsburgh’s South Hills with a ceremony at 3 pm Friday, May 12 in South Park Township, Allegheny County.

The new trail segment is approximately one mile long 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 feet 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 its construction of the Mon/Fayette Expressway in Jefferson Hills required some rearrangement of side roads and affected the trail council’s prospective right-of-way options. The Piney Fork Road extension, which opened last November 24, was built to replace access into Jefferson Hills from South Park that was lost when Snowden Road was closed on both sides of the expressway’s right-of-way.

"This superb new trail segment represents the Turnpike Commission’s dedication to serving the public," said Montour Trail Council President Dennis Pfeiffer. "The Commission worked very hard to preserve a safe, suitable right-of-way for the trail."

Speaking at the ceremony will be Frank J. Kempf, Jr., the Turnpike’s assistant chief engineer for development projects/programs; and Linda Boxx, president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance (ATA). The ATA is working to complete a rails-to-trails connection from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.

The Montour Trail Council has completed 29 miles of what is planned as a

51-mile trail from Coraopolis to Clairton.

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 P.O. Box 67676, Harrisburg, PA 17106-7676         Phone: (717) 939-9551         Fax: (717) 986-9649