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Two projects on the drawing board for the Montour Trail would link the popular walking and biking trail to Coraopolis and Pittsburgh International Airport.

It is unclear when either project would be built, said Dennis Pfeiffer, vice president of the Montour Trail Council.

The trail now starts at what is called "mile zero" under Route 51 outside of Coraopolis.

Pfeiffer said the council has a verbal agreement with Route 51 Partners for an easement through the old Montour Railroad maintenance yard, which would allow a trail to be built from mile zero to the Coraopolis-Neville Island bridge.

Gary Sheffler, president of Sheffler & Co. in Moon and an engineer representing Route 51 Partners, said the development company would give the easement to the trail council at no cost. The company is attempting to develop the 75-acre railroad yard for retail, office or light industrial users.

"Having the trail as part of the open space would be a nice amenity to have regardless of what the type of development would be on the site," Sheffler said.

The trail would allow Coraopolis residents to walk to whatever development is built there. Perry Wayne, borough manager, said he thinks extending the trail into Coraopolis is a good idea.

"We would be the kickoff spot," he said. "People would have to come here to get on the trail."

When the trail was originally built, Pfeiffer said the railroad right-of-way could have taken the trail into Coraopolis, but the council could not afford to buy the maintenance yard, which the railroad insisted on selling in one piece.

Sheffler said no major players have committed to building on the site but he hopes to see activity there in the spring. The development is hinging in part on the construction of an exit ramp from Interstate 79 southbound to Route 51.

The 3-mile spur linking the trail to Pittsburgh International Airport would be different from the rest of the trail in that it would not be built on an abandoned railroad bed. It would run generally from Imperial along Route 978 to the airport. How much the link would cost would depend on how much of an existing closed road would be used, although the standard cost is $50,000 per mile, Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer said the connection could eventually allow people to go from the airport to Washington, D.C. using the Great Allegheny Passage, a network of seven trails including the Montour Trail between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md., and the C&O Canal Towpath from Cumberland to Washington. The entire 335-mile trail is not yet complete.

Linda McKenna Boxx, president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, the coalition of the seven trail organizations, said having a connection to the airport would enhance the national and international appeal of the trail network.

"As this trail has gotten longer and longer, our visitors are coming from a much further distance," she said. "We are trying to get that connection to Pittsburgh International Airport so that national and international visitors coming to use our trail system can get off at the airport, unpack their bikes and away they go."

Boxx said a bicyclist at a pace of 45 to 50 miles a day could travel the 335 miles between Pittsburgh and Washington in about a week.

Pfeiffer said the trail council has talked with the Allegheny County Airport Authority about including the trail in the airport's general planning. An authority representative could not be reached for comment.

Dave Wright, a project manager and civil engineer for the Allegheny County Public Works Department and a trail volunteer, said problems with connecting the trail to the airport include crossing the Airport Expressway and restricted areas of the airport.

Boxx said security concerns in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have complicated the plans.

"Airports do not want to make themselves more vulnerable," she said. "Things have to sort of settle down a bit."

Wright said there are also issues to be worked out involving the placement of the trail on airport property.

"They don't want to encumber any future development with the position of a trail," he said. "They want to work the trail route into those future plans."

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