Early concept plans for the Lower Bucks leg of the 3,000-mile greenway showed the trail running through the intersection of Green Lane and Route 13, which has seen several fatal pedestrian accidents in recent years.
Engineers would need to design a bridge over the Neshaminy Creek near its delta with the Delaware. DOW Chemical must agree to allow a trail through part of its complex off Route 413. And then there's the Delaware Canal.
It's a big part of the Lower Bucks Greenway, engineers said. But it's severed at Route 13 in Tullytown and by train tracks further north in Falls Township.
Still, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council said it's hopeful that a trail could be connected through Lower Bucks within the next 10 years. The nonprofit group has hired landscape architect Simone Collins of Chester County to try and devise a plan.
The engineering group held a public meeting Tuesday night at the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority headquarters in Bristol Township. Engineer Peter Simone said the group plans to host a second meeting on June 24 at 7 p.m. That meeting will also likely take place at the authority headquarters at 1 North Wilson Ave.
Advertisement As proposed Tuesday, the Greenway would run through Bensalem along State Road, possibly along River Road through Bristol Township, across the DOW Chemical (formerly Rohm and Haas property) and along Pond Street in Bristol Borough.
The route would continue by crossing Route 13 and Green Lane before following the Delaware Canal into Morrisville.
Megan Ivey attended the meeting as a member of the Bristol Borough Revitalization Task Force. Ivey said she was hopeful that the greenway could be connected through Bucks County. But she confessed an uneasiness about trying to bike or hike across sections of Route 13.
In maps provided by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, certain roads are already designated as bike routes, though few of these roads have actual designated bike lanes.
Bikers are encouraged to travel along Trenton Road through Morrisville and Falls Township, along Route 413 in Bristol Township, and down Route 13 through Croydon and Bensalem.
For more information about the Greenway project, visit www.greenway.org or the Pennsylvania Environmental Council Web site at www.pecpa.org.
Click here to learn more about PEC's work on the East Coast Greenway in Southeastern Pennsylvania.