BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

"President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, will host a working dinner with other heads of state at Phipps Conservatory Thursday night." http://www.pittnews.com/node/19988

Yea, I know it was some dinner on Thursday. I just want to know when I should head home, or if I should pick a different route.

Well, maybe...

http://www.pittnews.com/node/19988

Note the comment about the Frick Fine Arts building being closed after Wed night.

They have fencing along the north side of most of panther hallow road, and some concrete barriers stacked next to it on the sidewalk, awaiting deployment. The whole half of the park might be closed?

I got a half ass'ed response from the g20 safety website. I still wonder about all the roads leading to those bike trails?

From: noreply@city.pittsburgh.pa.us

Subject: G-20 Safety - Reply to your question

Date: September 22, 2009 11:16:00 AM EDT

You asked:

I am interested to know what portions of Schenley Park will be closed this week (and when). I bike through the park between work and home everyday and I am very concerned by the amount of fencing being put out that I will not have a way home one day.

Answer:

All bike trails will remain open.

Thanks again for your participation.

It seems that cyclists and pedestrians will not be impacted by any road closures. Sweet! I guess I'll believe it when I see it.

From: noreply@city.pittsburgh.pa.us

Subject: G-20 Safety - Reply to your question

Date: September 22, 2009 2:53:23 PM EDT

You asked:

I am interested to know what portions of Schenley Park will be closed this week (and when). I bike through the park between work and home everyday and I am very concerned by the amount of fencing being put out that I will not have a way home one day. The previous response simply stated "All bike trails will remain open." but one needs to access those trails via roads. Which roads will be closed?

Answer:

Rolling closures are expected in the Oakland area, but the details of these closures have not yet been released. All parts of the City, however, will be accessible on foot or by bicycle, regardless of traffic restrictions.

Thanks again for your participation.

If it is any help, on the Oakland side of the Blvd of the Allies bridge into Schenley park, there are concrete barriers positioned for easy deployment.

I'm gussing that entrance to the park will be blocked off. Don't know about the sidewalks.

Somehow I suspect that they wouldn't do all these road clsoings and let anyone just ride up the junction hollow trail and past the panther hollow lake. At a minimum I would expect to be stopped and questioned a bit.

Mick

Mick

Updated information regarding this area from the Secret Service

http://post-gazette.com/pg/pdf/200909/20090922blvd_roadclosing.pdf

Thanks.. So much for the misinformation the city is sending out.

They could have just said "stay out of the park" rather than listing all those roads. Crazy..

It is pretty funny that the pittsburgh parks conservancy replied to my inquiry saying only that the visitor center would remain open, for who, I don't know, since every road into that area is closed

When I rode in this morning, there was a "Road Closed" sign pre-positioned at Boundary Street at the bottom of Joncaire. I didn't see anything at the other end of the Junction Hollow Trail to indicate they will be blocking things there but I'm guessing they will be getting to that.

Theoretically, I'll be able to get to work along my normal Schenley Park/Junction Hollow/Eliza Furnace route at 5am Thursday morning but will need to find some other route back at the end of the day. I'll probably climb Greenfield up from Second Avenue then across the Greenfield Bridge and then into Squirrel Hill.

Thanks Kordite,

I was planning on biking down greenfield and through JH.. I'd have been pissed to bike up the dang hill after finding it closed. Clever of them to leave that off the list. I bet they forgot a few other roads too.

I'm not a big fan of Pocusset because the visibility is poor and there's no shoulder at all, and drivers go entirely too fast on the twisties.

I like 2d Ave to Hazelwood to Beechwood Blvd. It adds a mile and a nice steady climb without stop signs.

I wasn't going to take Pocusset for that reason. I'm going to continue up Greenfield and then onto Bartlett or Beacon. Hazelwood and Beechwood would end up being another 3 miles out of my way.

Just made a blog post about this

http://bike-pgh.org/2009/09/oakland-g-20-street-closures/

here's the map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=40.436332,-79.943433&spn=0.016299,0.038538&z=15&msid=108814509676041702613.0004743e492db7e79a2c4

that most recent p-g article says that it's closed to cars and pedestrians.

well, if it's closed to cars and pedestrians they're certainly not going to let bikes through.

You might also want to add to the blog post that boundary (and so JH trail) is likely closed, even though it is not listed. And their list of streets don't make total sense, but I'm guessing that since they mention Schenley Dr Ext, all that area east of the plaza will be closed too.

And they also have the outlets from the Upper Panther Hollow Trail blocked off already this morning.. I had to move a bit of fence to squeeze through.

I figured they'd have to close off a lot of the trail that runs beneath Phipps. Thanks for the update on Boundary and Junction Hollow.

there is a massive fence throughout much of the park right now. you can get through as a bike or ped, but not as a car in certain areas. It is kind of a surprise if you come across it unawares.

i'm going to take a cruise through here right now, bring a camera, hopefully not be arrested

Looks like you could get through down Bartlett Street though, over the Greenfield Bridge and down Greenfield Ave to 2nd if you are headed downtown rather than Oakland. I took a ride this morning and have decided all those Jersey barriers around the PNC First Side center are just to protect that building, so you shouldn't have any trouble exiting the trail downtown. Of course, we're closed and I dont' have to go downtown tomorrow so it's easy for me to say that.

By the way, I just heard on the radio that the midnight street closings downtown will happen at 8pm. I wouldn't be surprised if these 9am closings in the park get a head start.

Secret service doesn't use time zones. It will be 9 am somewhere!

I think there's also a protest (that's not the Three Rivers Climate Convergence) in Schenley tomorrow...although I heard that while I was hungry and cooking dinner, so take that with a grain of salt.

It says vehicle and pedestrian traffic. I guess bikes would qualify as vehicles, but the press release doesn't mention equestrian traffic.

There's definitely a lot of big fences staged in Schenley, but I didn't see anything happening in Junction Hollow tonight.

the "road closed" signs were still laid down at the joncaire/boundary intersection as of like 8 pm or so.

If anyone heads through there in the AM, post an update, I wouldn't mind taking junction hollow tomorrow morning around 9:30 am or so..

FYI, JH trail and east end of Jail trail are open.

Pedal safe.

JH is wide open, no fencing or barricades or anything to indicate it isn't going to stay that way. There are parked cars along boundary st too.

Did see one guy in the run dressed in camo, walking along the street near the trailhead. Not sure if he was just some nutball in camo, or the real deal.

I saw more bikes than cars on my commute, and didn't have a single car pass me the whole time, which was way cool. Everyday should be G20!

wondering if anyone knows the status of junction hollow since dwillen's post. i ask because of this article. it seems that it ought to be closed, based on what's closed nearby, but it's not specifically mentioned.

Junction Hollow open? Damn.

Someone should let the anarchists know.

Mick

Yea, I saw a couple of small deer through the fog running across the hollow on my ride through this morning. They could stop the nature!

"but the press release doesn't mention equestrian traffic. "

I have a pair of coconut shells...

I rode Wightman to Beacon, then dropped down to the trail that starts near Serpentine Drive. Rode down to the lake, and aside from seeing a few ducks, was surprised to find about 20 cops in full uniform, riding away from the railroad tracks. They all said hello, probably as surprised to see me as me them.

When I got across the tracks myself, I saw plentiful traffic coming down from Oakland, and had no problem at all getting onto the Jail Trail.