Yay: Lights Are Coming to the Manayunk Bridge Trail. Boo: It’ll Be a While.
Photo via the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia/Facebook
We were super excited last fall when the Manayunk Bridge Trail, a train bridge-turned-pedestrian path that connects Manayunk to Montgomery County, officially opened for business. And then, one day later, we were super bummed about it.
That’s because it took trail users nary 24 hours to realize a major snafu in the execution of the project: namely, that lights hadn’t been installed, so the bridge closed every evening at 6 p.m., making it a less-than-useful option for commuters. It turned out the original plans called for conduit for lighting to be laid, but the budget fell short of providing funds for the lights themselves.
Now we have some good news report … and, of course, some bad news: The Inquirer informed us this week that 20 lights are finally in the works for the Manayunk Bridge Trail (hooray!), but the installation of said lights may take until 2018 to complete (womp womp). The $600,000 for the lights is coming by way of a federal grant.
For the time being, through the end of the winter, the bridge will continue to open at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m; signs posted on the bridge’s gates indicate that it’ll stay open until 9 p.m. come April 1st. Once the lights are finally operational, the path will remain open permanently.
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