We just got this from the Bakery Square property manager:
"Please be advised that Putnam Street (immediately across from the Bakery Square Blvd. / Penn Ave entrance) will be CLOSED starting Thursday, January 31st due to the demolition of Reizenstein High School."
No response on whether the northwest passage will be accessible to cyclists/pedestrians.
regentgal
2013-01-31 10:55:26
The Walnut Capital developers of BS2 announced at the last community meeting about the project that Putnam & the passage would likely be closed for the duration of Phase 1 construction. However, they also said they were in conversation with Ellis School about alternate routes via their property. Not sure if anything came of that but heavy users of the passage may want to appeal to Walnut Capital again (or 311 the lack of access?). Community members have been assured a much-improved connector when it's all done, but it could take some time to complete...
pseudacris
2013-01-31 15:39:05
I heard from a co-worker that the NE passage was closed last week. I haven't checked myself but they did start knocking stuff down in that corner of the property. I think that unfortunately, that part might be closed for the duration though, and there's not really a good detour. Too bad Village of Shadyside is allowed to have a locked gate on Penn or that would be a great alternate.
Putnam itself was semi-closed this morning. There are big metal gates blocking the road, but it looks like they're intending to leave a bike/ped walkway on the right side of the street. This morning, you could ride down the path by the ballfield and up the right side of Putnam, but then you had to jump a curb at a parallel angle (dangerous!) to get on the sidewalk on the other end. It wasn't clear to me if that was intentional or if they had (temporarily?) moved the last gate. I will try to ask them, if it weren't for that last gate it wouldn't be an issue. But, in any case I can assure you based on many experiments that the distance/time going the other way around the ballfield and on the bike path parallel to Penn is identical to Putnam if you're going to Beechwood.
salty
2013-01-31 21:18:02
Just got this email:
attached drawing which shows what we plan to do when we close the Reizenstein property for demolition. The yellow line shows the new path we will be creating (along the property of the Village of Shadyside) that will permit access to and from Penn Avenue. We will be closing the current route due to demolition of the armory buildings and the school. We will be putting down a crushed limestone path that should be good for cyclists.
Feel free to distribute this on your web site. We will be posting signs directing people as well. It should happen one day next week.
erok
2013-02-01 11:02:10
from what i understand, it might have a brief closure as they get this in place
erok
2013-02-01 11:02:40
Today is the same, Putnam is passable but requires a tricky curb jump. It's not wide enough for bidirectional traffic in any case, though, so I think I'll just get used to going the other way.
Cool news about the path on the other side, I did not know about that. Not sure if it's open yet.
salty
2013-02-01 18:43:13
that message came in today, so i imagine the work will be weather dependent
erok
2013-02-01 19:04:31
Thanks to Bike-PGH and all those who showed up to the community meetings and responded online. You all made this happen and preserved access for everyone. Well done!
astrobiker
2013-02-04 10:12:04
The new access trail through the property is in place as of yesterday just as detailed in their map at:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/812567_10151458383595792_956953070_o.jpg
astrobiker
2013-02-08 09:20:19
This is really great!
pseudacris
2013-02-08 12:04:39
