Northeast News Gleaner
Despite a forecast calling for chilly rains, Saturday, May 19 turned out to be a beautiful day for a walk along the riverfront. That’s exactly what more than 40 people did when they joined the Delaware River City Corporation (DRCC) for the second of their monthly “Walk the River” series
Sarah M. Thorp, DRCC executive director, along with former U.S. Rep. Bob Borski, Chair of the non-profit organization, and City of Philadelphia Deputy Managing Director Jim Donaghy, who is also the DRCC Vice Chair, led the group on a walk along the existing trail at Pennypack on the Delaware, and into a portion of the park currently not open to the public. Construction on this portion of the trail is scheduled to begin in August, and completed in early 2008. The trail will provide a diverse experience for users; it will pass inland from the river through a large meadow, then will skirt the edge of a mitigated wetland where there will be an overlook platform before it continues to the Pennypack Creek. There will also be a smaller trail section along the river’s edge that will branch off of the main trail and lead to the mouth of the Pennypack Creek.
This section of the trail has already completed the final design process by landscape architect Mark Jendrzejewski of Pennoni Associates. Jendrzejewski joined the walkers to answer questions and explain the design. A portion of a $1 million grant to DRCC from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will fund the trail construction. The remaining funds from the grant will allow for initial construction of a new park at Lardner’s Point, just south of the Tacony Palmyra Bridge, which will also be a part of the North Delaware Riverfront Greenway.
Two additional portions of the greenway are scheduled for final design in the coming months. These sections are the K&T Trail which is an unused portion of the Kensington and Tacony Railroad that the city acquired from Conrail, and the northern-most section of the Pennypack trail that will further extend the portion being built later this year to Pleasant Hill Park, also known as the Fish Hatchery, at Linden Avenue. Once final design is completed, funding is in place to allow for construction of these sections to begin in 2008.
The Pennypack walk was the second in a series sponsored by DRCC. Various sections of the greenway trail are being toured on the third Saturday of each month through August. More information on these walks is available by calling 215-537-8400 x135 or 136, or by visiting www.drcc-phila.org.
