Come next month, a bicycle might be the fastest way to get from the North Side to Millvale, and the ride soon will be a whole lot smoother.

Relocation of a section of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail near the 31st Street Bridge, including construction of a trail bridge along the edge of the Allegheny River, is expected to be completed sometime in August, said Thomas E. Baxter IV, executive director of Friends of the Riverfront, the project sponsor.

The nearly $6 million project fills in a bumpy half-mile unfinished section of the trail while accommodating the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's plan to rebuild and widen Route 28 starting next month.

The piers and much of the concrete deck of the quarter-mile, 12-foot-wide trail bridge have been erected. Plans also call for resurfacing the trail from the Lincoln Properties housing complex to the Three Rivers Rowing Association's boathouse in Millvale by summer's end, Mr. Baxter said.

The trail is open during construction.

The trail improvements were incorporated in PennDOT's $21.9 million contract to relocate the Norfolk Southern Railway tracks that run parallel to Route 28. The tracks are being moved closer to the river to create room for an interchange at the 31st Street Bridge.

If the trail was going to squeeze through in the space between the railroad and the river, it had to be on a span over the sloping bank.

Friends of the Riverfront raised nearly $2.8 million to get the work done as part of the Route 28 project, Mr. Baxter said. Had it not done so, the trail would have had a permanent missing link.

"It was either come to the table with the money or get out," he said during a tour of the site Monday.

The project also got $2.9 million from the federal economic stimulus program.

Before the work started, riders on the North Shore who wanted to continue to Millvale had to endure a rutted, unimproved section across Norfolk Southern property between the entrance to the Washington's Landing bridge and the boathouse.

PennDOT acquired the property and will turn it over to the city of Pittsburgh when construction is finished, Mr. Baxter said. He praised the work of PennDOT District 11 executive Dan Cessna on behalf of the trail.

Mr. Cessna "is in charge of the most forward-thinking district in the state. He realizes that transportation is not just about cars and trucks and buses and trains," Mr. Baxter said.

Letters of support from bicyclists and business owners in Millvale "just poured in," he said. "It really helps if everybody's pushing in the same direction."

The Three Rivers Heritage Trail is a dedicated biking, hiking and walking trail running 21 miles along both sides of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. The hope is to extend the trail along the Allegheny to Armstrong County and to connect various pieces of existing trail to form a Pittsburgh-to-Erie bikeway.

Moving the railroad tracks is key to PennDOT's plan to improve the congested Route 28 stretch from Chestnut Street to the 40th Street Bridge. Four years of construction is expected to begin in early August, causing a single-lane traffic pattern for outbound drivers.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.