Around the Rivers: Ingomar Road is Topic of Concern at Last Public Meeting for North Park Master Plan

Fixing pedestrian lanes on Ingomar Road should be one of four priorities for a master plan being developed for the North Park Lake area, North Hills residents told county officials Wednesday at the final public meeting on the topic, hosted by the the Allegheny County Parks Foundation. 

Other top priorities include a test trial of closing Lakeshore Drive during the day on weekdays, improving the Rachel Carson Trailhead, and making upgrades such as green parking to the Boathouse.

Many of those who turned out Wednesday night, packing the Rose Barn in North Park, were concerned with the dangerous conditions of Ingomar Road, particularly with speeding cars. The master plan calls for enlarging the pedestrian and bike paths along the road on the lakeside from eight feet to a combined 14-18 feet, with six to eight feet for the bikes and eight to ten feet for pedestrians as well as a curb separating it all from the car lanes.

To cheers from the audience, Mike Bowman, 57, of Hampton Township, said the pedestrian and bike trails on Ingomar Road should be expanded on the hillside, not on the lakeside.

“If you walk by that, it’s a cliff,” said Bowman. “Half of that road is a sheer drop off.”

He also said he was worried about the difficulty and safety issues of clearing snow from the elevated lane, as well as the financial difficulty of maintaining a trail made of gravel.

“Safety is probably close to the top [of people’s concerns],” said landscape architect Todd Brant, who is the Project Manager from GAI Consultants, the firm helping to formulate the plan. During two prior public meetings, the group took into account feedback and used it in deciding what options were most crucial to complete first.

Marshall Township citizen Bill Moul, 70, said he thinks that the consultants dropped the ball with regard to Ingomar Road.

“I thought they did a lousy job of recognizing that people were very concerned about Ingomar Road,” Moul said. “For the bikers and runners, it is a very serious consideration.”

Executive director of the foundation, Christine Fulton, said she was impressed with Wednesday's attendance.  

“It really shows that many of us really love the park and it’s an important part of our daily lives.”

The master plan for the North Park Lake area follows The area is a well used and beloved area of the park, Fulton has said. 

“We are going to compile all the comments and we’ll go over those and talk as a group. We’ll try to come to a consensus to how we want to go forward and what goes in the final report,” Brant said. 

“We recommended four things here, but depending on the funding source, we may do some things before others.”

Fulton said she expects funding to come from private foundations, government agencies, and individuals. Allegheny County is set to match dollar for dollar any money the foundation puts toward the project.

The final report is expected to be released sometime in January 2012, after which project designs and trials can begin.