EASTON, Pa. (WFMZ) — A new $765,000 grant from PennDOT, combined with an additional $500,000 from the Shapiro-Davis Administration, is getting Easton’s Highline Trail project one step closer to becoming a reality.<\/p>\n
“Five years ago we just thought it was a dream and today we’re here to announce that we have enough money to buy all of the right of way that we’ll need,” said Mayor Sal Panto.<\/p>\n
Panto said the combined $1.2 million in grants will be used to purchase five parcels of old rail lines connecting the trail to downtown and creating Easton’s third largest park.<\/p>\n
“To access the wonderful shops, restaurants, venues, festivals, farmers market and also provide an outstanding recreational opportunity for the region,” said Rep. Robert Freeman of the 136th District.<\/p>\n
Plans for the elevated trail and linear park are similar to New York City’s Highline. The area will span almost 18 acres between Easton and West Easton, along the Lehigh and Delaware rivers.<\/p>\n
“The highline project will be an outstanding addition to the Easton scene, providing an opportunity to link downtown Easton with surrounding communities by both bike and pedestrian trails,” Freeman stated.<\/p>\n
The Highline Trail will be the first in the country to connect two states with future links planned to cross into Phillipsburg, New Jersey. An official timeline for the highline trail hasn’t been released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. (WFMZ) — A new $765,000 grant from PennDOT, combined with an additional $500,000 from the Shapiro-Davis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,6290],"class_list":["post-213010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-easton-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}