Pittsburgh to use grant money for citywide trail condition study

Pittsburgh officials are planning to launch a comprehensive study to analyze the condition of walking and biking trails throughout the city.

The city is poised to accept a $73,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Community Conservation Partnerships Program to fund the trail condition study.

Jeff Skalican, deputy director of the city’s Director of Mobility and Infrastructure, said the goal is to create a study that outlines the condition of the city’s trails so that officials can identify which ones may need additional maintenance or improvements.

Skalican could not immediately identify which trails would be included in the initiative, but said the study will look at pedestrian and bike trails along the riverfront and through Pittsburgh’s parks.

Maria Montaño, a spokesperson for Mayor Ed Gainey, said the city will hire an outside company to launch the study. The city has not yet determined who that will be.

“The scope of the project is still not fully defined at this point,” she said. “It’s still very, very early in the process.”

Ultimately, she said, the city is hoping to produce a report that is similar to what the administration did in regards to bridges. The city unveiled a comprehensive bridge report in December that showed the condition of all of the city’s bridges and outlined which spans were most in need of maintenance and repairs.

Montaño declined to say whether the trail report would be made public when it is complete.

Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, pointed out that volunteer groups and nonprofits maintain some trails in smaller parks and greenways throughout the city. Officials were not able to confirm whether those would be included in the study.

“I bet there are more trails than you think,” Gross said. “I think we’ll probably leave some unevaluated.”

Montaño could not immediately provide a timeline of when work on the study would begin.