After nearly two decades of prep work at the old Carrie Furnace property in Rankin and Swissvale, plans to redevelop the massive site on the bank of the Monongahela River are coming together.
Earlier this year, the Regional Industrial Development Corp. received state funds to help with construction of the first new buildings at the site, one that’s the first phase of a major soundstage complex for the movie industry and the other a 60,000-square-foot flex industrial building.
Rivers of Steel, which controls about 35 acres that include the historic blast furnace complex, has been staging events that include theater shows, concerts and festivals there. It expects to announce another major project next month.
And Allegheny County announced it will use $9.2 million in federal stimulus funds to link the site to the popular Great Allegheny Passage trail on the Homestead side of the river and create new trails to improve access on the Rankin side. That includes rehabilitating the long-closed hot metal bridge that linked Carrie to the former U.S. Steel Homestead Works, creating a new nine-mile connection upriver to the Westmoreland Heritage Trail in Trafford and studying the feasibility of extending the trail downriver to Duck Hollow near the Homestead Grays Bridge and the Hazelwood Green site in Hazelwood.
The new trail connections are considered a key component to draw tenants to the development site and spur new growth in neighboring Mon Valley communities that are some of the poorest in the county. That includes Swissvale, Rankin, Braddock, North Braddock, East Pittsburgh and Turtle Creek.
“The bridge and trail system will just enhance that whole area,” said Augie Carlino, president and CEO of Rivers of Steel. “It conveys a lot of things that people say they want when they look at an area. It’s all part of the package.
“It will open up economic development possibilities for those communities on the north side of the river.”
RIDC President Don Smith agreed.
“It will be a terrific addition to the site,” he said. “Having trail access is just another amenity people look for. Now the table is set for moving ahead with everything we have planned there.”
Allegheny County bought 137 acres along the river for $5.75 million in 2005 from Park Corp., which had obtained the furnace site when it bought the former Homestead Works to create The Waterfront shopping and entertainment complex. U.S. Steel later donated the bridge to the county.
Over the years, the county has obtained grants and spent some of its own money to remediate the land it owns between the furnace site and the Rankin bridge. That included environmental cleanup, new infrastructure and utilities, dumping tons of clean fill and construction of a flyover ramp from the Rankin Bridge to improve access.
Last week, the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County awarded $21.8 million in grants from its Trail Development Fund for 18 projects across the region, including those around Carrie Furnace. The county earmarked a portion of money from its share of American Rescue Plan Act funds for trail projects.
The grants include $6.3 million to design and rehabilitate the bridge with an off-ramp on the Homestead end and a switch-back ramp in Rankin; $2.5 million to design and engineer the trail connection between Rankin and Trafford; and $407,550 to determine the feasibility of adding the Duck Hollow wing to the trail.
“It’s really the great confluence of items coming together at the same time,” said Lance Chimka, director of the Redevelopment Authority.
Creating another connection for the Great Allegheny Passage to the north side of the river is considered a major step forward, especially with the link to the Westmoreland trail. The GAP extends from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md., and draws thousands of bikers and runners who spend millions each year in the small towns along the trail.
Mr. Chimka said the authority will manage the bridge project and expects to get construction bids next year since the federal money must be spent by the end of 2024. The bridge work will be a challenging project because of environmental permits required to work above the river, he said..
The county initially wanted to include vehicular and trail traffic similar to the the Hot Metal Bridge between South Side and Hazelwood, but it would be too expensive to upgrade it for vehicles.
Mr. Chimka said grant money will help to determine the path the trail follows from Rankin to Trafford. It could run along or near major roads such as Braddock Avenue and the Tri-Boro Expressway/Route 130 to provide better exposure to the business districts in the towns along the way, but there could be safety concerns because of the regular vehicular traffic.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald called the trails “a big piece” to help develop the Carrie Furnace site and the type of projects the federal funds were designed to help.
“We don’t often get this kind of opportunity,” he said. “This is an opportunity to get a lot of trails done at once.”
For Mr. Carlino, the latest improvements are another step forward in his agency’s 30-year effort to preserve a slice of the region’s steel-making history by establishing a museum at Carrie Furnace, which has been named a national historic landmark.
“”The site is in good shape… but there are a lot of things that still need to be done,” he said. “That history is far too important to the region to lose it. It stands as a testament to what this region did [by producing thousands of tons of steel during World War II] to help save the world.”
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: September 28, 2022, 11:12 p.m.
Updated: September 29, 2022, 10:49 a.m.
