{"id":4033,"date":"2014-01-28T18:03:13","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T23:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=4033"},"modified":"2014-01-28T18:03:13","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T23:03:13","slug":"second-phase-of-chester-valley-trail-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=4033","title":{"rendered":"Second phase of Chester Valley Trail opens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commissioners plan to defer celebration until warmer weather in spring<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>It may be too cold to celebrate, but the Chester County Commissioners announced the opening on Tuesday, Jan.28, of Phase II of the Chester Valley Trail, deferring the festivities until spring.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cCompletion of Phase II brings the trail up to 9.8 miles, running through the heart of\u00a0Chester\u00a0County,\u201d said Commissioners\u2019 Chairman Ryan Costello.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNeighborhood access, connectivity to municipal trailheads and many corporate parks, and its natural beauty all make trail completion another tremendous step forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Phase I opened in the fall of 2010 and included four miles from Exton Park to Rt. 29. Phase II extends the trail from Uptown Worthington at Rt. 29, east to Old Eagle School Road in Tredyffrin, a distance of approximately 5.8 miles, a county news release said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWe estimate that around 350,000 people have been using the Chester Valley Trail every year since Phase I was completed,\u201d said Commissioner Kathi Cozzone.\u00a0\u201cClearly our citizens want this trail, not just for recreation, but for commuting as well.\u00a0\u00a0Use of this trail by hundreds of thousands of people every year helps us to achieve the county\u2019s strategic plan goals relating to health and transportation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Commissioner Terence Farrell noted that building the trail was not as simple as clearing brush, trimming trees and paving. “…when you factor in “the renovation or complete re-building of culverts and the installation of bridges, it becomes evident that trail construction \u2013 especially in such a highly populated area \u2013 is not that straightforward,” Farrell said.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u201cIn addition to recognizing the staff in our department of Facilities and Parks, local businesses and municipalities, Montgomery County and\u00a0PennDOT, I thank the Friends of the Chester Valley Trail group, whose members have been helpful in maintaining a dialogue with the public about the progress of the trail, and who also volunteer time to help maintain the trail\u2019s beauty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Construction of a small part of Phase II will continue as the trail extends east of\u00a0Old Eagle School Road into\u00a0Upper\u00a0Merion\u00a0Township,\u00a0Montgomery\u00a0County, the release said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Chester Valley Trail Phase III construction is scheduled to begin in March. Phase III will add another 1.25 miles and connect the county\u2019s\u00a0Exton\u00a0Park\u00a0site with Ironlake Boulevard\u00a0in Exton. This phase will include a signalized trail crossing at U.S. 30 and\u00a0North Ship Road in Exton, the release said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Another section of the trail, Phase IV, will be approximately one mile in length and will continue the trail from\u00a0Main Street\u00a0at Exton west to the\u00a0Oaklands\u00a0Corporate Center. The\u00a0<\/span>Phase I construction cost was $5 million with all of the money coming from the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The cost of Phase II to date is $8.9 million with 80 percent of the money being reimbursed through the Federal Highway Administration\u2019s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program, the release said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chester Valley Trail project dates back to 1991, when representatives of\u00a0Chester\u00a0County,\u00a0Montgomery County\u00a0and\u00a0PennDOT\u00a0envisioned a soon-to-be-abandoned rail line as a major regional trail facility.\u00a0\u00a0Five years later, Chester\u00a0County\u00a0acquired the first section of right-of-way for the\u00a0project, the release said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commissioners plan to defer celebration until warmer weather in spring It may be too cold to celebrate, but the Chester County Commissioners announced the opening on Tuesday, Jan.28, of Phase II of the Chester Valley Trail, deferring the festivities until spring. \u00a0\u201cCompletion of Phase II brings the trail up to 9.8 miles, running through the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1870,198,200,814],"class_list":["post-4033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-chester-valley-trail","tag-commissioner-kathi-cozzone","tag-commissioner-terence-farrell","tag-commissioners-chairman-ryan-costello"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}