Trail Move Stalled, Garage Repairs Move Forward

Mayor: Relocating railroad tracks cost-prohibitive

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
February 10, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

Plans to relocate the bike trail to the river’s edge in McKeesport have stalled. (Tube City Almanac photo)

A plan to move McKeesport’s section of the Great Allegheny Passage to the edge of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers has stalled, Mayor Michael Cherepko said Wednesday.

The cost of relocating railroad tracks and industrial operations is too expensive, and the city is looking for alternatives for the busy hiking-biking trail that forms part of a network between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., the mayor said in his report to council.

One of those alternatives would take the bike trail through the heart of the city’s central business district, which could provide an incentive for retail and restaurants to locate on the dormant Fifth Avenue corridor.

In 2018, the city was awarded a $2.9 million multimodal transportation grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to re-route the bike trail and renovate the Lysle Boulevard parking garage.

Regional Industrial Development Corp., which owns the industrial park at the former U.S. Steel National Works, donated 2.25 acres of land in 2022 to provide additional right-of-way for the trail.

But routing the trail around the former U.S. Steel electric-resistance weld mill — now operated by Export-based Dura-Bond Industries — has become more complicated that expected, Cherepko said.

The company manufactures steel pipe and both receives and ships products via a connection to CSX Railroad.

“There doesn’t seem to be enough room to go down around the point without affecting Dura-Bond’s operations,” Cherepko said. “They have rails that go through that property, and it came out to be an unbelievable amount of money to relocate them.”

One estimate put the cost at well over $1 million, he said. The safety of bicyclists passing close to an industrial operation also played a role.

Instead, Cherepko said, city officials are looking at a plan to take the bike trail down Fifth Avenue between Locust Street and the McKee’s Point Marina.

The trail currently uses a narrow alley behind the Lysle Boulevard parking garage, and shares the road with Fourth Avenue between the police and fire station, a situation that has long been less than ideal for motorists, police and bicyclists because of the cramped passageway.

“We will be looking to run the trail from Locust Street all the way down to the marina at Joe Bendel Way,” Cherepko said. “We may not be able to take it down around the point, but we are probably going to be able to get a bike lane through Downtown.”

A previous proposal to put a bike lane on Fifth Avenue was scrapped because it would have eliminated parking on one side of the street. The mayor said that newer standards for bike lanes would enable bikes and parking to co-exist on the street.

(Tube City Almanac photo)

Meanwhile, city council is proceeding with plans to renovate the Lysle Boulevard garage.

Council on Wednesday awarded a $733,000 contract for the second phase of garage’s reconstruction to Kucich Construction Co. of McKeesport. Kucich, the lowest bidder, previously was awarded a $2.3 million contract for the first phase of the work.

The project is being funded by grant money, including the multimodal transportation grant.

Cherepko said the garage renovations, which originally expected to begin several years ago, have proven to be more complicated than originally thought.

“The concrete was much more in disrepair than we anticipated,” he said, “and the longer we waited, the worse it got.”

The Lysle Boulevard garage, built in 1959, has a maximum capacity of 440 cars but has been closed since 1999, when portions of the concrete deck began falling onto parked cars.

Work will include repairing and replacing concrete, repairing and repainting exposed steel beams, new lighting, new elevators, and security systems.

City officials envision the first two floors of the garage being reopened to serve the bike trail, the neighboring Tube City Center for Business & Innovation, and the nearby Pittsburgh Regional Transit park-and-ride station.

All payments will be collected automatically using the MeterFeeder phone app, Cherepko said.

Although some residents have questioned the necessity of re-opening the Lysle Boulevard garage, Cherepko said the need is pressing, because the city’s Sixth Avenue parking garage, located near the Masonic Temple, is expected to close soon.

The Sixth Avenue garage, like the Lysle garage, needs expensive repairs, he said, and it may prove cheaper to invest in the Lysle garage and tear the Sixth Avenue garage down.

About 50 to 100 cars use the Sixth Avenue garage on a regular basis, he said. Leases would be transferred to Lysle Boulevard if the Sixth Avenue garage closes.

City officials said they continue to work with developer Jonathan Stark on finding anchor tenants for the nearby Executive Building, and that a new owner of the former G.C. Murphy Co. store at 315 Fifth Ave. — directly across Lysle Boulevard from the garage — also will need parking for his planned office tenants.

Originally published February 10, 2025.

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