SEGMENT 2: Cross County Trail Bridge Crossing of Germantown Pike​

The concept for the Cross County Trail originally came about in the late 1980s when Conrail abandoned a portion of the Plymouth Branch Railroad corridor between Conshohocken Borough and Springfield Township. Later in 1993, Conrail abandoned the remainder of this corridor, and Montgomery County intervened to “rail-bank” the right-of-way and ultimately use it as a public trail. In the county’s 1996 open space plan, Creating an Open Space Legacy, the Cross County Trail is identified as one of thirteen recommended countywide trails. The trail gets its name because it is proposed to “cross the county” in a west-to-east route from Chester County to Bucks County.

Click to enlarge

Cross County Trail Context Map

Since these early efforts in the late 1980s and 1990s, portions of the trail have been constructed, including a 3-mile stretch between the Schuylkill River Trail in Conshohocken and the intersection of Germantown Pike and Chemical Road in Plymouth Meeting—along with several recently completed segments in the Fort Washington Office Park area of Upper Dublin Township. Once complete, the trail will be approximately 17 miles long and will serve as an important link in the Circuit Trails regional network. Some of the more challenging sections of the Cross County Trail remain incomplete, including this bridge connection over Germantown Pike, which is the focus of this study. The map above indicates the location of the proposed trail bridge.

The 2015 Feasibility Study for the Extension of the Cross County Trail in Plymouth and Whitemarsh Townships, prepared for Plymouth Township (see links below), recommended that the only safe means of continuing the Cross County Trail eastward from the intersection of Germantown Pike and Chemical Road would be to construct a bridge. The current study will examine the feasibility, preferred location, design, and cost for the trail bridge and produce concept-level plans for the selected design alternative. 

Feasibility Study

Cross County Trail Bridge Feasibility Study (February 2022)

Meetings

A virtual public meeting was held on July 29, 2021. Click here for more information.

Documents

Stakeholders and Interested Parties

Aqua
Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia
Brandywine Realty Trust
Danella
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)  
Livezey Store Associates
PECO Energy
PennDOT District 6-0
Plymouth and Whitemarsh Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB)
Plymouth Township
Plymouth Township Environmental Advisory Board
SEPTA
The Circuit Trails
Victory Office Park
Whitemarsh Township


(Back to Wissahickon and Cross County Trails Feasibility Studies)