Steps continue to expand the Three Rivers Heritage Trail with a 1.2-mile section that leads to the historic Carrie Blast Furnaces in Swissvale.
Friends of the Riverfront, the nonprofit that manages the 35-mile network along the Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela riverbanks, said the extension provides a critical link to reconnect communities historically severed from one another.
The new section will stretch from the Duck Hollow trailhead to the retired furnace, a National Historic Landmark.
“We’re really excited to keep this project moving,” said Katie Kovalchik, Friends’ trail development project manager.
Friends recently was awarded $450,000 from the state toward the work. The money comes through the Department of Community and Economic Development’s Multimodal Trail Fund.
A Swissvale connection has been in the works since 2022.
A preferred route, guided by public feedback, has taken shape in the design phase.
It would start at the intersection of Tecumseh and Blair streets and continue on-street to Blair Street Park. From there, it would move toward the existing Melanchthon Street pedestrian bridge. Final designs include a new, ADA-accessible bridge.
Construction would continue below the Glenwood Bridge to the existing Duck Hollow trail and then to the Carrie Furnace property.
“The extension is crucial because it creates the connection that will allow (us) to extend the Three Rivers Heritage Trail farther into the Mon Valley and down the Turtle Creek Valley to Trafford,” said Courtney Mahronich Vita, director of trail development and government relations.
Work will connect two major economic development sites — Hazelwood Green and Carrie Furnace — as well as provide a transit and recreational corridor to the communities along the route, she said.
Engineering plans and a feasibility study for the new section are expected to be released in the coming months.
No timeline for construction was released.
The Three Rivers Heritage Trail draws more than 1.3 million visitors a year, according to Friends’ website. Its wide appeal spurs more than $26 million in spending across the region because of walkers and bikers who are diverted to small-town commercial districts.
The Heritage Trail is part of the Erie-to-Pittsburgh Trail, Great Allegheny Passage (GAP), the Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Main Line Canal Greenway and the Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition network.
Kovalchik said the behind-the-scenes work of trail implementation takes time but the connections are invaluable.
Across the region, Friends is working to complete gaps in trail sections like Tarentum, where a recommended route will pass through Riverview Memorial Park and Dreshar Stadium and then connect to Brackenridge.
The group last summer completed work on a $450,000 1-mile trail that runs from ATI at Mile Lock Lane to the Tarentum line.
