GAP Still Closed Near Kennywood, Shuttle Extended Into the Fall
The two-mile stretch of the Great Allegheny Passage below Kennywood blew past its August 20 target and has no reopening date. The $20 Duquesne to Homestead shuttle now runs until at least September 30.
The August 20 target came and went. The two-mile stretch of the Great Allegheny Passage below Kennywood is still closed, and this time nobody is naming a reopening date.
The segment between the Whitaker Flyover and the Port Perry Flyover, around mile marker 137 in West Mifflin, has been shut since the evening of July 9. It was supposed to reopen August 6, then August 20. On August 7 the Regional Trail Corporation said contractors doing the rock scaling had found formations in the slide area that ordinary maintenance cannot handle. The corporation asked a geotechnical engineer to evaluate the hillside and report to its board before anyone rides underneath it again.
“Our overarching obligation remains the physical safety of every cyclist and pedestrian who uses the trail,” RTC Board Chair Mark Place said.
The shuttle is the part that changed for the better. The licensed service the Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy arranged between Duquesne, mile marker 135.3, and Homestead, mile marker 140.5, now runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, and is scheduled to keep going until at least September 30, possibly into October. It is still $20 a person, cash preferred, and the ride takes 16 to 20 minutes. Off-hours pickups carry a $50 minimum and need a call ahead to 412-699-3127.
Riders who would rather not wait can put a bike on Pittsburgh Regional Transit routes 59 or 61C. There is an on-road way around through East Pittsburgh, but the RTC does not recommend it, and neither do we if you are hauling four panniers through city traffic.
The permanent fix runs about $8 million. The RTC has raised $4.3 million so far, which has covered this scaling job, a similar one last year, and the engineering for the real repair. Anyone who wants to help can write to rtcslideproject@gmail.com.
Confluence sits about 75 trail miles east of the closure, but any closure on the trail always effects the local businesses here in a big way. Spend your money locally this fall, it’ll mean alot.