29-Sep-2001 report on North County and South County Trailways

 
Westchester County Trailways 

I was there earlier this week, here's the status [of the "missing" link in the North County Trailway]: 

If you're going south, it's easy as pie to get on the shoulder of southbound 9A/100 for a third of a mile. As you go south on the trail, don't take the turnoff that heads uphill to 117, stay on the path, then drag your bike through a break in the weeds down to the shoulder.  Ride on the shoulder south for a third of a mile and then hop back on to the trail where it resumes.

If you're going north, you can ride against traffic on the narrow
shoulder, one local cyclist told me he does this with his road bike
all the time. The rest of the path is clearly under construction -
if the construction vehicles are active, the right hand lane of the
entire area will be cordoned off and it's no problem cycling through the zone, just be very careful around the active construction trucks.  It looks like they are removing a rock outcropping to make room for the path. 

My guess is they will have everything done before the close of
construction season. And the State DoT's web site confirms: 

www.dot.state.ny.us/roads/rc8.html

Mount Pleasant: ROUTE 9A AT THE INTERSECTION WITH ROUTE 117
PROJECT: Bike path.
SCHEDULED COMPLETION: December 2001
WORK ZONE: Route 9A, southbound, at the intersection with Route 117.
TRAFFIC CONTROLS: Expect occasional southbound lane closures, from 9:00 AM
to 4:30 PM, on Route 9A, at the intersection with Route 117.

>I'm very interested in knowing when Elmsford 
>will be connected to Eastview and when the missing
>section of the North County Trail will be completed.

Might take a while. There are quite a few intrusions into the right-of-way north of Tarrytown-White Plains Road (Rt 119), and some of them might even have legal status (i.e. they leased the property from the railroad).

Westchester County's web site over at:

www.westchestergov.com/planning/capital/trailway.html

Here's an interesting excerpt:  

Current projects which staff are implementing include the design
of the South County Trailway Phase III from Warehouse Lane in
Greenburgh to Eastview, design of the Bronx River Pathway from
Harney Road to Crane Road

The "Phase III" project is clearly underway, since I saw fresh asphalt south of Eastview. That won't link it all the way to Elmsford, but Warehouse Lane is pretty good since you'll only have to go a short distance on 9A before you can go to some local side streets (No Payne, Hayes St, Vreeland Ave, or perhaps Nepperhan Ave) that will take you to Rt 119 where the trail resumes. 

The Bronx River Pathway link mentioned will all but fill in the
biggest "missing link" in that trail (you'll still have to go a couple of blocks in Scarsdale), maybe we'll see that implemented one day.

Hey, Google is your friend, look what else it turned up:

www.nymtc.org/downloadablepgs/tep/mh/mh71.pdf

Which is an application by the County for funds to build a 1.75 mile portion of the trail between Tibbets Brook Park and Dunwoodie Park, with a connection to the Croton Aqueduct. Although they didn't show a map with the document, they do mention rehabbing the bridges over the Cross County Parkway and Yonkers Ave, so that should give you an idea of where it is.

 
more Reports on Trailways | Description of Trailways | more Condition reports