On a recent cold morning, Mark Imgrund stood on an icy overlook and watched a steel girder "slice the sky" as a crane guided it into place above Valleybrook Road in Peters.
The bridge girder brought the Montour Trail 88 feet closer to becoming a continuous 46-mile recreational trail snaking along the border between Allegheny and Washington counties from Moon to Clairton. About a quarter-million people use the trail annually.
"It's a beautiful trail," said Imgrund, who bikes more than 1,000 miles annually. "There's parts where you feel like you're in complete wilderness."
Before Imgrund's group, the Montour Trail Council, formed in 1989 with the goal of turning the abandoned Montour railroad into a bicycle and hiking trail, the Peters bridge and several others over roads and streams were razed because of safety concerns.
With more than $1 million from state and federal sources, the trail council has hired contractors to re-erect the bridge, restore two others and repair a tunnel.
Another $250,000 from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and private donors will improve nearly 2 miles of trail, including laying a crushed limestone surface and installing a drainage system.
Imgrund expects the projects to be completed by the end of this year.
"This stretch of trail has always been on our radar," Imgrund said. "We finally got to the point where it was next in line."
The bridge above Valleybrook Road in Peters is a significant part of the project. Three 6.5-ton girders, painted "Montour Maroon," were placed last week by Mingo Creek Construction. A wooden surface will top the girders.
To Ned Williams, chairman of the trail council's engineering and construction committee, replacing the bridge is about more than just connecting the trail.
"It's a neat way of preserving history," he said. "These rails-to-trails projects take these railroads that were so important to our economic history and showcase them."
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