May 18, 2024 By Brad Hundt 2 min read

After being shuttered three times in the last year, the refurbished Greer Tunnel has reopened on the Montour Trail.

The 235-foot-long tunnel in Peters Township is available again for cyclists, walkers, runners or anyone else who uses the Montour Trail. It reopened following a year-long renovation project that cost more than $1 million and provided a new lining for the tunnel and upgraded the facades. A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the completion of the project May 10.

The work was necessitated by concrete in the ceiling that was “pebble by pebble dislodging itself,” according to Julian Wolfe, president of the Montour Trail Council, which owns, manages and maintains the 60-mile trail. It snakes through Washington and Allegheny counties and is the longest suburban rail trail in the country.

The deterioration of the 111-year-old tunnel that was built by the Montour Railroad “was to a point where we needed to address it in a large-scale fashion,” Wolfe explained. Several years ago, a temporary scaffold roof was put in place to catch falling debris. Once it was determined, though, that a more permanent fix was needed, the project was divided into three phases, and it necessitated closing the tunnel last spring, and again from July through November, and for a final time in March and April.

Ned Williams, a member of the Montour Trail Council’s engineering and construction committee, said in a news release, “Over the past 30 years, the Montour Trail has undertaken numerous trail conversions of historic railroad bridges and built several new bridges, as well. But this was our first tunnel rehab. It represents our first extensive rehabilitation of a railroad structure that had previously been adapted for trail use and had stood open to the public for years.”

Money for the project came from a fundraising campaign, and grants from the Washington County Redevelopment Authority and the Pittsburgh-based Treadway Foundation. Wolfe noted that over the last 35 years, the Montour Trail Council has invested much of its time and effort in building out the trail, and though there are still segments they would like to add to it, much of the group’s efforts will now be focused on the trail’s maintenance.

“We’re investing significant resources to upgrade critical infrastructure,” Wolfe said.