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They're rollin' at Homewood bike playground

Written by Diana Nelson Jones on .

 wheelmill
On a day like today, it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to bicycle or do anything indoors, but there are all kinds of days and all kinds of bicyclists ... and now, there’s The Wheel Mill.
 
The indoor bike park opened on April 12, and mountain bikers, BMX racers and free-stylists are already flocking. It was Harry Geyer’s dream, the first indoor bicycling playground in the state, at 6815 Hamilton Ave., and one of not even a handful in the eastern part of this country. 
 
Harry, an aficionado who also owns a construction company, began wrestling the 80,000 square-foot former fabricating plant into shape with the help of hundreds of biking enthusiast volunteers over the past year. 
 
He said about 60 percent of the space is completed and that  crews will continue to build out with a goal of having both floors finished by September.
 
“We’ve had tons of people from all over the East Coast,” he said. “There’s a huge mountain biking community in Maryland and we’re getting people from there.”
 
wheelmillkidsThere aren't many indoor bicycling parks in the country but among them most close in the summer. The Wheel Mill will be open all summer.
 
The Wheel Mill got a loan of $150,000 from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and Harry and his wife Sheila, devoted a chunk of their own money toward this venture.
 
The URA’s Rochelle Lilien, senior business development specialist, is quoted in the URA newsletter: “Harry was great to work with, and his vision and unique concept were refreshing. This is exactly the type of deal the URA loves to get involved in. We used our PBGF [Pittsburgh Business Growth Fund] loan funds to finance the gap to make this project work. The result was the re-use of a large vacant warehouse in Homewood, one of our targeted City neighborhoods, adding brand new life to the street!”
 
Harry said Saturday afternoons are the busiest time, “and anytime it’s raining.”
 
Photos by Brian Yeagle. Top: Mike Potoczny, a designer and building helper at the Wheel Mill, goes airborne at the Wheel Mill. Bottom: Nathan and Lucas Halahan

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Let's beat Brownie Town

Written by Diana Nelson Jones on .

bicyclists
The National Bike Challenge starts Wednesday and runs through the end of September, and this year, Pittsburgh bicyclists will try to defend our 2012 status as Rustbelt Champion.
 
During the next five months, people who sign up to contribute their logged miles can help the ‘burgh beat Brownie Town.
 
The National Bike Challenge is also a way for regular bicyclists to chart their miles each day, whether they cycle for exercise, for commute or both.. 
 
Bike Pittsburgh and Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe on the Southside are the local sponsors. Nationally, the sponsors are The League of American Bicyclists, Kimberly Clark and Endomondo.
 
You can sign up for the whole challenge or at any point therein here. Include your zip code to help Pittsburgh outride Cleveland.

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Route 28 may make you late

Written by Jon Schmitz on .

More complications lie ahead for overnight drivers on Route 28 and the Parkway East this week. Let’s get right to it.

roadworkaheadInbound Route 28 will be down to one lane from the 40th Street Bridge to East Ohio Street starting at 8 p.m. today through Friday. UPDATE: PLANS FOR A FULL CLOSURE ON TUESDAY NIGHT HAVE BEEN CANCELED. The second lane reopens by 5 a.m. daily.

The ramp from northbound South Braddock Avenue to the inbound Parkway East will be closed at 9 p.m. today through Saturday for expansion dam replacement. The closures will end at 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday but not until 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. The posted detour is to continue north to a left on Forbes Avenue, left on Murray Avenue and right on Forward Avenue to the Squirrel Hill on-ramp to the inbound parkway but many will doubtless just look for a convenient place to turn around, because the on-ramp from southbound South Braddock Avenue to the inbound parkway will be open.

Drivers get a week off from the outbound Squirrel Hill Tunnel closures this coming weekend. The next outbound closures are scheduled for the weekends of May 10 and May 17.

Sign-ery

funnysign

Lane restrictions are possible on the east side of the Hulton Bridge from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays through June 29 as Duquesne Light works on new utility poles. Flag crews will be out.

Crack and joint sealing will cause overnight restrictions and slowdowns on Route 50 in both directions from Bridgeville to Carnegie starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday and every weeknight through next Monday. Work wraps by 6 a.m. daily.

Line repainting will occur on the three parkways, Interstate 79 and Route 28 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and on Saturdays until further notice. Stay well back from paint trucks unless you think your ride would look good with yellow and white splotches on it. PennDOT won’t pay for the damage.

Bridge inspections will cause lane closures on Route 65 between Kendall and Millerton avenues in Brighton Heights and Bellevue from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Friday.

Butler Street will have short-term lane restrictions at One Wild Place (the zoo entrance) from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Friday.

Traffic signal work will cause short-term restrictions on Business Route 22 in Monroeville from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through May 10 at these intersections: Nottingham Drive, GP Entrance Road, Penn Center Boulevard, Northern Pike, Duff Road, Stroschein Road, Miracle Mile Driveway, McMasters Drive and Mosside Boulevard.

Traffic has been reduced to one lane on Interstate 80 eastbound in Mercer County for about 2 1/2 miles approaching the Grove City-Sandy Lake exit. The restriction is expected to end by 1 p.m. Friday.

Crews will seal coat the shoulders on Route 28 from the Allegheny County line to West Kittanning and Route 422 from the Judge Graff Bridge to the Butler County line over the coming three weeks.

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