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13 more trails approved for regional greenway

A pedestrian ramp for the Ben Franklin Bridge, a former rail bridge over the Schuylkill in Manayunk, and a Burlington County trail are among 13 trails getting $4 million for design and construction, local officials said Wednesday.

Barry Seymour, Executive Director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, speaks (far right), as John Boyle (left), of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and Shawn Megill Legendre (middle), of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission hold onto signs at Rutgers in Camden on November 13, 2013. Regional planners announced $4 million for bike and pedestrian trails across the region, including $400,000 for the planned new walkway on the Camden side of the Ben Franklin Bridge. ( ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer )
Barry Seymour, Executive Director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, speaks (far right), as John Boyle (left), of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and Shawn Megill Legendre (middle), of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission hold onto signs at Rutgers in Camden on November 13, 2013. Regional planners announced $4 million for bike and pedestrian trails across the region, including $400,000 for the planned new walkway on the Camden side of the Ben Franklin Bridge. ( ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer )Read more
    by By Paul Nussbaum, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Published 

A pedestrian ramp for the Ben Franklin Bridge, a former rail bridge over the Schuylkill in Manayunk, and a Burlington County trail are among 13 trails getting $4 million for design and construction, local officials said Wednesday.

The trails are part of a 750-mile network being built for pedestrians and bicyclists in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey.

About 285 miles of trails in the network are built, and an additional 50 miles are in development, leaving about 415 miles to go.

Trail advocates hope to complete the network within 20 years at a cost of $250 million.

The push for local trails, led by a coalition of nonprofit organizations, coincides with a national drive to create a 3,000-mile East Coast greenway from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Fla. Segments have been completed to make up about 29 percent of that greenway.

The funding announced Wednesday in Camden, near the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge, was approved in September by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

The money is part of a $10 million grant from the William Penn Foundation to help complete the trail network.

The trails help provide "a connection to our waterways and to each other," Helen Davis Picher, interim president of the foundation, said Wednesday.

The trails receiving funding are:

Burlington County: Kinkora Trail, Mansfield Community Park Connector, 3.5 miles, $500,000.

Camden County: Ben Franklin Bridge bicycle and pedestrian ramp, 0.05 miles, $400,000.

Mercer County: Lawrence Hopewell Trail, 1.6 miles, $250,000.

Bucks County: Route 13-Green Lane Trail Connector, 0.1 miles, $249,000.

Bucks County: Neshaminy Creek Greenway in Chalfont Borough, 2.15 miles, $188,768.

Chester County: Schuylkill River Trail in Phoenixville Borough, 0.75 miles, $365,000.

Delaware County: Darby Creek Stream Valley Park Trail, 1 mile, $500,000.

Delaware County: Newtown Square Rail Trail in Haverford Township, 0.75 miles, $340,000.

Montgomery County: Tookany Creek Trail in Cheltenham Township, 0.5 miles, $400,000.

Montgomery County: Lansdale Liberty Bell Trail in Lansdale Borough, 0.5 miles, $160,840.

Philadelphia: Manayunk Bridge Trail, linking the Cynwyd Heritage Rail Trail and the Ivy Ridge Rail Trail, 0.4 miles, $60,000.

Philadelphia: Tacony/Holmesburg Gap Waterfront Trail, 1.5 miles, $300,000.

Philadelphia: Cobbs Creek Connector Trail, 0.5 miles, $275,000.

A map of the trails is available at www.dvrpc.org/

RegionalTrailsProgram.