One tribute to Pittsburgh's 250th birthday was to have been completion of the Great Allegheny Passage, part of the 335-mile biking and hiking trail that runs between Point State Park and Washington, D.C.

Wouldn't you know it, though -- the only missing link in the Great Allegheny Passage happens to be in Allegheny County, and in an otherwise crowd-pleasing spot, Sandcastle water park in West Homestead.

Last week County Executive Dan Onorato and Kennywood/Sandcastle President Peter J. McAneny issued a joint release saying they've made "significant progress" toward accommodating the half-mile trail segment through the park's property. No solution was described and no specifics were released, but Mr. Onorato's spokesman said the agreement could be "weeks or months away."

That's encouraging, after all the time, effort and dollars that have been spent on carving the 150-mile, multipurpose passage between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md. One of the latest links completed was the 1,200-foot Riverton Railroad Bridge connecting McKeesport and Duquesne over the Monongahela River. With U.S. Steel's transfer of bridge ownership, plus $2.5 million in public and private funds, the span was renovated and opened in time for use Saturday by PNC Legacy Trail Riders, who pedaled from Washington to Pittsburgh to be part of the city's climactic birthday celebration.

The riders rolled through Sandcastle as well, but with special permission from the park and not on a permanent trail alignment. If the county and Sandcastle put their minds to it, this missing link will soon be history. With the city's official birthday on Nov. 25, the day in 1758 that Gen. John Forbes and his troops arrived at an abandoned Fort Duquesne, there's still time to give Pittsburgh a present.