Plans for a 130-mile Philadelphia-to-Pottsville walking and biking trail got a boost Monday thanks to a grant from a Philadelphia organization.

The Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, the nonprofit group proposing the trail, announced $735,000 in funding from the William Penn Foundation to be used for the set-up and management of an on-road biking trail from Reading to Hamburg.

Portions of the trail planned for Schuylkill County, however, will have to wait.

“In this cycle (of funding), there will be no money for Schuylkill County,” Kurt Zwikl, executive director of the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, said in a phone interview Monday.

The trail has been inching along for years, and Zwikl said it will be a “long time” until the full trail is complete.

When it is, it will run the entire length of the Schuylkill River.

In the meantime, on-road trails are being established. The $735,000 will pay for signs and trailheads marking the route along state and municipal highways near the proposed trail.

The money will also help fund a promotional program to educate residents on the trail, according to a Schuylkill River Heritage Area press release.

Some areas of the trail have been completed.

Stretches running from Philadelphia to Valley Forge and Pottstown to Reading are already open, and a third between Hamburg and Auburn — about seven miles long — opened in late 2007.

Another planned stretch will run from Pottsville to Auburn, but Zwikl said it will probably be years until much of the trail is complete.

The grant money will also be used to fund Web site improvements and trail user counts and surveys, according to the press release.