Thanks to a new $2 million grant from the William Penn Foundation, the expansion of the Rail Park has moved one step closer to becoming a reality, writes Jake Blumgart for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The grant will be used for its design, as well as the engineering of the park’s extension.

The following phase of the Rail Park project will convert the neglected railroad viaduct running from Vine Street to Fairmount Avenue into a greenway. This will more than double the existing length of the elevated park system.

Center City District, which is masterminding the Rail Park, will now be able to focus on capital fundraising, considering that the latest grant brought the total closer to the $3.5 million required to put out the bidding documents for construction.

“It’s a very, very important grant because it helps us get construction documents by April of next year,” said Paul Levy, chair of the Center City District board. “We still have huge tasks in front of us to raise capital, but this has moved from nice renderings of a park to exactly what will it cost to build the first phase of this.”

According to Levy, the final project will cost anywhere between $60 million and $65 million.

Read more about the Rail Park expansion and the new grant in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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