After spending much effort to upgrade the look and use of the banks along the Allegheny River, the Riverlife Task Force is turning its attention to the Monongahela in a big way.

Last week, the group received a $300,000 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for a major transformation of the Mon Wharf Landing below Fort Pitt Boulevard and the Parkway East. The money will be combined with a $365,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation to build a retaining wall and a sloping, flood-proof berm with trees, shrubs and grass.

Today the wharf is a dingy parking lot with 600 spaces that closes due to flooding several days each year. Once the task force gets moving on the $1.3 million first phase of the project (construction may begin in October), it will eliminate one-third of those spaces. The good news is they'll be replaced with a landscaped, 40-foot-wide trail linking Point State Park and the Eliza Furnace Trail, which stops short at the county jail.

Thanks to the state and the Riverlife Task Force, that will be more green space rolling along the river -- and a visible improvement that Pittsburghers on both sides of the Mon can appreciate.