The state Bureau of Parks is looking to “close the gap” in the bike and walking trail that winds through the Oil Region, much of it along the Allegheny River.
This section of the trail is part of the 270-mile Erie-to-Pittsburgh Trail (EPT). When complete, the EPT will connect the Bayfront in Erie with the Point in Pittsburgh, with the Oil Region serving as the central hub.
Kim Harris, project manager at the Oil Region Alliance, said the state has studied the so-called missing link in Oil Creek State Park and will hold public meetings in 2020 to obtain community input on the two to three possibilities that would complete that section of the trail.
In this section, bikers and hikers have to travel on roads and not on the EPT.
Harris said closing this particular gap in the state’s rails-to-trails system is considered high priority.
The section of EPT that runs through Oil Creek State Park is the oldest section of the EPT, said Harris.
“It was there before the other sections were put in,” she said.
