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By J.R. Brower

With the completion of the second trail bridge on Valley Brook Road in early July, the Arrowhead Trail system through Peters Township is now finally done.

The new Valley Brook Bridge #2

The Montour Trail Council began the project in 2013 with development of a 200-foot-plus section of trail along Valley Brook beginning near the Peters Township Sanitary Authority off Washington Road.

The first phase also included construction of Valley Brook Bridge #1, a 98-foot-long pedestrian bridge over Brush Run from the original Arrowhead Trail head into the old Montour Railroad right-of-way. Previously, trail users had to use a 250-yard long bypass along the well-travelled public road to get around this gap. Also included in the first phase was the installation of an at-grade crossing of Valley Brook Road near the site of just-completed Bridge #2.

On June 22, Valley Brook Road west closed down between Route 19 and Rock Run Road, so that the pre-fabricated bridge could be installed over new pillars. Montour Trail Council Project Manager Mark Imgrund called the new $1.6 million trail bridge “a much-needed safety improvement”. Several sources of funding included state and county grants as well as private donations through the trail council. Aside from guard rails work on the bridge sides and utility line work beneath it, the trail section though Peters is now finished.

Another bridge project several miles away, already in progress, will carry the Montour Trail above Route 50 and Route 980 in Venice, Cecil Township. When that bridge, along with the trail bridge renovation project over Route 88 in Library are fully completed in the fall, the entire 56-mile length of the Montour Trial from Coraopolis to Clairton will be fully intact. The trail will then join with the Great Allegheny Passage, a 330-mile trail that connects Pittsburgh with Washington, D.C.  The new Valley Brook Bridge #2 is now in place, which will make it possible for walkers and bicycle riders to traverse the Peters Township section of the trail completely from east to west.

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