Ivy Ridge Green joined a terrifying number of volunteers for the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. day of service along the Lower Merion side of the Schuylkill River. Hats off to the Friends of the Cynwyd Trail, to Lower Merion Township, to St Joe’s, to the many other sponsors of the cleanup and — finally — to the dozen or so Philadelphians who tromped across the bridges to help lead volunteer teams in another county. You all do our city proud.

Let’s get that bridge built so that we can see more of each other.

On Thursday, PennDOT announced $24 million for smart transportation projects around the state — and funds to open the Manayunk Bridge, at $1.3 million, made the cut.

No kidding. Looks like Manayunk is going to be reunited with “West Manayunk.”

Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler and Stephen Buckley of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation pulled this off – big thanks to them, and the team at SEPTA that opened the door to this idea. Those of us who have worked on this locally know that Kay Sykora (Schuylkill Project), Sarah Stuart (Bicycle Coalition) and Chris Leswing (Lower Merion) have worked their tails off to get us to the table. This project couldn’t be in better hands. If this bridge gets a trail, you all drink free in Manayunk.

Congratulations, too, to all the volunteers at Ivy Ridge Green who stepped up a couple of years ago to provide a partner to this project on the Philadelphia side of the river. Ace job, and a hell of a fun group of people.

We still need your help.

Philadelphia still needs to complete the Schuylkill River Trail. Come to the cleanup this MLK Jr. Day, the 17th, to get your back into it. Or become a member of the Bicycle Coalition and make a donation — they have a track record of turning our lunch money into millions of dollars for the Philadelphia trail system. The Manayunk Bridge is just one (brilliant) piece of what we hope can be a 14-mile green transportation corridor that will link Montgomery and Delaware Counties through the heart of Philadelphia.

Nearer to home, keep an eye out for the trail design process for Ivy Ridge this Spring / Summer, and the beginning of construction on the Cynwyd Heritage Trail. There’ll be plenty of changes to get involved.

This is happening, folks!

UPDATE: Here is a map [PDF] of the work site, with driving direction.

On January 17th, join volunteers from Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties on the Schuylkill River Trail — your work will help complete the trail and connect the two counties.

Meet by the Tow Path Bridge (behind the Manayunk Brewery, pictured above) at 9:00 am and to work on removing brush, vines and debris from the waterfront area.

Brian O’Neill, who is helping to build this part of the trail as he redevelops the old Connelly building as apartments, is providing dumpsters. The Pennsylvania Branch of the Great American Clean Up is providing refreshments (coffee, donuts and lunch), gloves and Port o Pots.

Parking will be available by the Tow Path Bridge. People driving should enter the site through the Lower Merion School District Bus Depot at the end of Righters Ferry Road. Signs will be posted directing people to the work site.

Questions? Call Chris Kingsley (610) 812-8931. See you out there!

Last night the Lower Merion Township Commissioners on the Park and Recreation Committee voted 13-0 to recommend to the full Board that the Planning Department move forward on developing the Cynwyd Heritage Trail for $2.4 million.

Congratulations to Chris Leswing, the Lower Merion Parks & Rec team, the Friends of Cynwyd Trail, and to Sarah Stuart and the Bicycle Coalition for tying this to the growing Schuylkill River Trail network.

Still not up to speed on this project? There are some great maps at the Cynwyd Trail website. Check it out!

Ivy Ridge Green had the great pleasure of joining our friends in Lower Merion for an ambitious session of tree planting this weekend. (Apparently both sides of the river are pulling long hours this spring.) The Cynwyd Heritage Trail — Ivy Ridge by another name, just across the Manayunk Bridge — has 270 new trees, courtesy of PHS, the Township, and hundreds of volunteers.

The good people at Penn Mitzvah planted five bare-root crab apple trees along the Barmouth entrance to the station; a lot of fun and new experience for all of us.

Thanks to Penn Mitzvah for the great work, to the Friends of Cynwyd Heritage Trail for the hospitality and tree planting lessons, and to Bruce Reed and the Township for leading the way on what we hope will be a trail that will better-link our two communities. We hope to see a lot more of you on both sides of the river.

On Tuesday, January 26th, the designers for the Cynwyd Heritage Trail presented new renderings and design concepts for public feedback. While there are still a lot of details to fill in, Lower Merion residents got a taste of the potential of what the trail could become (within our budget, of course). The next step is to finalize some elements and present it to Lower Merion’s Board of Commissioners this summer for approval before phase one construction can commence in the fall. Look up the complete renderings and maps at http://cynwydheritagetrail.com/Present/Pages/CHT_community_presentation.html

Our compliments to the chefs! Cynwyd Heritage and Ivy Ridge Trails debuted the new Philly Bike Blender last Saturday at Manayunk’s “Home Grown” fall festival. Many thanks to the ‘Yunkers, young and old, who hopped on to blend their own pumpkin smoothies.

There are pictures.

Thanks in particular to Sustainable Manayunk & MDC for hosting the event, to Sheldon’s Crossing for sponsoring it, and to Annie Scott and Sarah “Fender Blender” Francis for getting the trails there.

PARK(ing) Day Philly was Friday, September 18th. PARK(ing) Day is an annual national event where citizens reclaim parking spaces and re-imagine other possibilities that space could be used for.  Check out this picasa album of spaces across Philly, including the space taken over by the Cynwyd Heritage Trail and Ivy Ridge Trail gang in front of La Colombe on Main Street. We got a lot of attention that day!

http://picasaweb.google.com/parkingdayphila/ParkIngDayPhilly2009?feat=email#

Thanks to Kevin Smith, Jane Green, Annie Scott, and Kay Sykora for the astroturf and plants. Great thanks to Cadence Cycling for loaning us a couple of the bikes! Also, thanks to Chris Leswing for printing some giant maps of the trail and trail connections. Until next year…

Come out for a beer on Friday, October 2nd to join a discussion on the design of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail in Lower Merion. The Manayunk Brewery and Restaurant will be hosting, and trail designers Kim Douglas and Bryan Hanes will be lead.

The event runs from 5 to 6:30pm. Afterward there will be a sunset walk back to Cynwyd Station on the trail. More event information will be available at cynwydtrail.org, cynwydheritagetrail.com and destinationschuylkillriver.org.