The oft-flooded and muddied wharf along the Monongahela River, Downtown, is awash in state grants for the first phase of a multimillion-dollar project that will link the Eliza Furnace trail with Point State Park and turn the dingy strip of concrete and macadam green.

	These artist's drawings shows how the proposed green strip would appear along the Mon Wharf. Click photo for larger image.

The state Department of Transportation gave the Riverlife Task Force $365,000 last month and members of Gov. Ed Rendell's administration plan to be on the wharf this afternoon to announce that a second grant for almost as much will be made available for construction of a 5-foot-high retaining wall and a gently sloping, flood-proof berm containing trees, grass and shrubs.

The berm -- actually a planted green strip running the length of the wharf between the Smithfield Street Bridge and the Fort Pitt Bridge -- will divide the wharf between parking spaces located underneath the Parkway and a 40-foot-wide trail along the river.

"We are thrilled with this grant," said Lisa Schroeder, Riverlife Task Force executive director, because it will allow construction to begin on a part of the multi-phase project that can stand alone as a link between Point State Park and the Eliza Furnace Trail that now dead ends near the County Jail.

Schroeder said project designers and engineers started field work on the wharf Friday and plans are to begin retaining wall construction Oct. 1. The berm plantings will be done in the fall or the spring, depending on the weather.

Schroeder still is seeking funding for trail amenities such as lighting and benches along the wharf, which will bring the cost for that first phase of the project to $1.3 million.

"This is the fastest way to make a physical and visual transformation on the wharf without trying to do all the project at once,'' she said. "The beauty of our plan is that it immediately puts the wharf into play as part of the park. The other things, utilities and furniture, are enhancements but are not essential to the park functioning."

When the trail, berm and retaining wall are finished, parking on the city-owned wharf, which was reduced from 700 to 600 spaces due to recent Parkway reconstruction, will be reduced again to approximately 400 spaces.

The second phase of the project is a $2.5 million ramp that will link the wharf with the Smithfield Street Bridge, make the project accessible to people with disabilities and develop easier access to bicyclers coming from the Eliza Furnace Trail.

"That part of the project is a funding priority for the Task Force and we are working with federal and state legislators to find the appropriate sources for that piece of the project,'' Schroeder said.

The project, called Monongahela Wharf Landing, was designed by Hargreaves Associates, and also includes a causeway to carry trail users around the Fort Pitt Bridge pier near Point State Park, docking areas for paddle and power boats and a series of 15 barges moored along the wharf and containing landscaping and constructed wetlands. Those "little parklets" will be used to treat contaminated storm water runoff from the roadways above the wharf and could be linked to one another and to the wharf with walkways

"Those plantings are the most innovative and creative parts of the project," Schroeder said. "But the 40-foot-wide trail that will be created by the berm is very narrow to accommodate all the various uses for the area. The barges would extend the park and provide a swath of green on both sides of the trail."

She said use of the barges is not unprecedented. Barge-based floating gardens have been used along rivers in Amsterdam and in Japan.

"The wharf has long been a missing link in the city's trail system," Schroeder said. "And it has the potential to be a gateway image for the city because its south-facing deck is visible from the Fort Pitt Tunnel exit and the bridge and also from Mount Washington."

State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBeradinis, Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director Douglas Austen and Center of Local Government Services Executive Director Kenneth Klothen are scheduled to make the Growing Greener grant announcement on the wharf.

It is one of three water body-related grant announcements the group of state administrators will make around southwestern Pennsylvania today. Others are scheduled at Hereford Manor Lake in Beaver County, and at Canonsburg Lake in Washington County.