The rebirth of Lackawanna’s Bethlehem Steel site continues to gain momentum with the opening of the newest section of the Shoreline Trail on the site, an approximately 6,500-foot long, 10-foot wide stretch that runs from the City of Buffalo line to Dona Street in Lackawanna.

The first phase of the approximately $1.8 million Shoreline Trail project was funded through a combination of New York State Department of Transportation –Transportation Alternatives Program, federal Community Development Block Grant (“CDBG”), and Erie County bond funding. Among the features Trail users will notice along the new stretch are an iron “button”, a 50-ton leftover of the steelmaking process that was retrieved from the rear of the property and will now be displayed with informational signage along the Trail, and an above-ground, industrial gas pipe installed by Bethlehem Steel to supply natural gas to the site.  The now empty and inoperable pipe at one time supplied one million cubic feet of gas a day to fuel steelmaking needs during the plant’s heyday, but is no longer in service and now will serve as industrial art and a small reminder of what used to be on the Bethlehem site. The final installation of 30 new trees, benches, Shoreline Trail way-finding signs and an interpretive sign for the iron button will mark the conclusion of Phase I.

Phase II of the Shoreline Trail Project will involve further extension of the Trail to reach Woodlawn State Beach Park in the Town of Hamburg.

Read the full press release here.