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March 23, 2011
In about a week, crews will begin work on a $1.1 million expansion of the Schuylkill River bike trail, connecting Falls Bridge with Ridge Avenue and filling one of the most strategic gaps in the city's trail system.
Bike enthusiasts hope the project, to be completed in June, will inaugurate a busy year of constructing bike lanes and trails, including two more extensions of the Schuylkill River Trail.
Falls Bridge to Ridge Avenue is a particularly important piece. The crumbling narrow sidewalk there now often discourages bikers from continuing into Manayunk, or pushes them into an unfriendly high-speed section of road.
Many bikers assume the path ends at a pump house just west of the bridge, said Alex Doty, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.
"Every one of us who had ridden this trail has made that mistake," he said.
The project calls for the existing sidewalk to be removed and an eight- to 10-foot-wide path to be constructed, with new retaining walls and guide rails, and a new parking lot at the foot of Falls Bridge.
Mayor Nutter and other city officials broke ground on the project during a ceremony Monday.
"The only thing better than a groundbreaking is a ribbon-cutting," Nutter said. "In a couple months we're going to come back to you. . . . We're going to cut a ribbon and get a bunch of cyclists out here."
Gina Snyder, director of the East Falls Development Corp., said the trail along Kelly Drive has about 15,000 visitors a month, but those numbers "drop significantly when you head up toward Manayunk because of a lack of a connection."
"We see this trail as an important economic driver," she said. "We'll have folks coming in from Lower Merion and all those suburbs, and the trail will work for them."
The extension also will connect the Schuylkill trail with the lower Wissahickon trail, which wends through the Wissahickon Valley to the city line.
Once the extension is completed, bikers will be able to travel 16 miles from LOVE Park near City Hall to the city boundary at Northwestern Avenue on "a continuous, well-maintained, and well-built trail," said Park and Recreation Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis.
Recreation officials and bikers hope one day to see trails extending from Philadelphia to Pottsville, 130 miles away.
Completion of the Philadelphia portion of the Schuylkill trail could take several other big steps this year, said Sarah Clark Stuart, the Bicycle Coalition's campaign director.
As many as seven trail projects could be started with $17.2 million in federal grant money the city received last year.
Six of the projects are related to the Schuylkill trail, including a boardwalk from Locust Street to South Street and a connection from the Manayunk Canal to the Montgomery County line.
Recreation officials also are studying a way to connect the trail from Ridge Avenue to the Manayunk towpath, perhaps the biggest missing piece of the Schuylkill River Trail in the city.
"We're in this for the long haul, and we're going to keep at this until it's completed," Stuart said. "We got to the moon. We can do this."
Article originally posted by Troy Graham to Philly.com on March 15th 2011
Comments
To whom it may concern,
I was slightly suprised that this article failed to mention skateboarding, considering that LOVE park is a world famous destination for skateboarding and was never highly celebrated beforehand. This, paired with the fact that the article mentions a trail that would connect LOVE with the Schuylkill River, where a state-of-the-art skateboarding plaza was promised to skateboarders over 10 years ago, in which time the popularity of the sport has grown faster than any other.
I certainly would hope that skateboarding will be considered in the design of these expensive plans. Its time that city planners start taking notice to the growth of skateboarding in both the 5-9 year and 18 and above demographics. Not only is skateboarding here to stay, but its poised to become one of the top recreational activities in the modern world; especially, in American Cities. If anyone has doubts of this, consider the fact that skateboarding's incredible growth over the past 10 years, has taken place, despite the fact that its illegal practically everywhere. It's absolutely ridiculous! Furthermore, Philadelphian skateboarders have shown an incredible amount of passion, dedication and perseverance to their craft through DIY projects, such as FDR and Pop's Skatepark
Skateboarding has evolved. Philadelphia, now has the opportunity to show that it has evolved, as well and is willing to make amends for its lack of civility towards skateboarders in the past. It doesn't have to be expensive for a city to include skateboarding in its design. Areas that are friendly for skateboarders, bikers and pedestrians alike, already exist, within the city's limits. Love Park was designed without the intended purpose of skateboarding; however its perfect for it. Why then should it be too expensive to construct similar infrastructure, that facilitates skateboarding?
Failure to include skateboarding in these designs would show a total lack of commitment to Philadelphia's youth. Please, don't allow that to happen.
Actually, the site where they want to build the skatepark is still reserved for it, and I heard that the group that's developing it is close to having enough money to build it soon. :)