The Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Friends of the Riverfront nonprofits have moved into the design and engineering phase for the Turtle Creek Connector, a trail that will make its way through several towns in the upper Monongahela River corridor.

“We’re not funded for construction at the moment, but we’re looking at what it’s going to take to come up with the blueprints to get this to the construction phase,” said Christopher Corbran, the west region program manager for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

The Turtle Creek Connector, funded largely through American Rescue Plan dollars by way of the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County, would create a trail linking 10 towns and forming an uninterrupted corridor from the Carrie Blast Furnace to the Westmoreland Heritage trailhead at Trafford’s B-Y Park.

Along the way, it would also link up with the Three Rivers Heritage Trail and the Great Allegheny Passage which runs to Washington, D.C. And it could eventually tie into another Friends project in the works, the Verona-Oakmont-Penn-Hills-Plum trail. That 14-mile trail would begin at the Allegheny riverfront in Verona, winding its way through Oakmont and Penn Hills and ultimately into Boyce Park on the Plum-Monroeville border.

Click here for a virtual map of the proposed trail path.

Members of the council and the Friends group will host public meetings Sept. 9 and 10 to take additional public input as they develop the Turtle Creek Connector plan. The Sept. 9 meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the Braddock Carnegie Library, 419 Library Street in Braddock. The Sept. 10 meeting will be virtual, held at 6 p.m. via the Zoom platform.

“We’ve gotten out and about to let people know this is under way, and we’ve gotten a great reception,” Corbran said. “We heard from folks about how they see this connector enhancing not just their daily lives, but also bringing additional tourism into the area.”

Other trail towns have seen that firsthand: Export’s downtown area along Washington Avenue has seen a revitalization in the years since the Westmoreland Heritage Trail was built, with new businesses filling once-empty storefronts and regular bike and pedestrian traffic through town.

“The next step for the Turtle Creek Connector is getting environmental permits and securing rights-of-way,” Corbran said.

Much of the right-of-way acquisition talks are happening with Norfolk Southern railroad officials.

“As with everything else, we’ll see where those discussions lead,” Corbran said. “Nothing’s set in stone until we get those papers signed.”

Toole Design and WSP, engineering firms with local offices, are working with the Friends group to help plot out the trail. WSP Civil Engineer Chad Smedley said the eastern end of the trail could include a trailhead at Pitcairn Park.

“You’d almost have this nice little triangle of connectivity with the Westmoreland Heritage Trail, the Verona-Oakmont-Penn-Hills-Plum Trail and the Turtle Creek Connector,” Smedley said.

For more on the trail projects, see FriendsOfTheRiverfront.org/trail-development.

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