Three Centre County Transportation Alternatives Projects Receive More Than $2 Million in Funding

Three projects to improve bicycle and pedestrian access and safety in Centre County will receive a combined $2.125 million in funding through the commonwealth, Gov. Tom Wolf’s office announced on Wednesday

The projects in State College, Ferguson Township and Bellefonte were among 64 statewide to receive money from the state’s federally-funded Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside program.

The three Centre County projects were among 43 specifically funded with money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) allocation to Pennsylvania.

“These projects will help make travel in these communities safer and healthier,” Wolf said in a statement.

Here’s a look at each of the local projects:

• State College will receive $1.1 million for a shared-use path on Easterly and Westerly parkways and from Blue Course Drive to Whitehall Road. The paths will connect with the existing Orchard Park Bikeway, Blue Course Drive Shared Use Path, Blue and White Trails and the Gill Street Bike Connector.

The new path, “will expand our bicycle and pedestrian network and result in improved access to public schools, public parks, residential neighborhoods, commercial enterprises and our walkable downtown,” Jasmine Fields, sustainability program officer, told the borough’s Transportation Commission in October just before the application for the funding was submitted.

• Ferguson Township will receive $700,000 to install a concrete sidewalk on the west side of Water Street from the Route 26/Route 45 intersection south to Chestnut Street. The project also will include shoulder widening to accommodate bike lanes on Route 45 and painting bike legends on the shoulder; installing a rectangular rapid flashing beacon at the existing bike crossing on Nixon Road; and installing signs and legends for shared lanes on a portion of Route 45.

• Bellefonte will receive $325,000 for streetscape and safety improvements in the downtown. The project includes reconfiguring the walkway along South Spring Street and West Bishop Street and replacing the entire sidewalk in that area; creating new curbing; creating a safe entrance and exit into and out of a building on the corner of Route 144; adding bulb-outs and ADA curbs at appropriate intersections; and adding street lighting, planters, a green buffer and other landscape islands for color and shade and to help define the edges of the roadway, parking and walkways to create a welcoming, and safe walkway.

A total of $54.1 million was awarded statewide from the TA Set-Aside to projects defined as transportation alternatives, including on- and off-road pedestrian and bicycle facilities, infrastructure projects for improving non-driver access to public transportation and enhanced mobility, community improvement activities and environmental mitigation, trails that serve a transportation purpose and safe routes to schools.

Prior to the infusion from the federal infrastructure act, only $18 million was initially available this year from the TA Set-Aside.