BELLEFONTE — Bellefonte Borough will soon begin work to improve safety and access to Talleyrand Park. The park is divided into two parts by Spring Creek, with bridges connecting each side, but those bridges are not ADA-accessible because of the attached stairs.
The borough plans to connect the two sides for everyone’s use by adding a walkway to the existing railroad bridge in the park.
The county plans to use a federal Community Development Block Grant to start the project, working on extending the platform and walkway from behind the playground area toward the bridge. The project also will include a guiderail and a fence to keep people off the railroad tracks, providing safety.
This part of the project will cost around $170,000, said borough assistant manager Don Holderman. He said the work should begin next week and be completed by the end of the year.
Holderman said the borough initially planned to use previous years’ CDGB funding for the whole project, including the walkway over the bridge, but the cost turned out to be higher than expected. The project was sent out for bids in the spring, with an estimation that cost would be approximately $300,000. But, the bids came back around $700,000, according to Holderman. He said the explanation for the higher cost was the fluctuation in steel pricing.
Now, the borough is planning on applying for more grants in order to complete the bridge part of the project next year. The amount needed for the bridge walkway is estimated to be $525,000, according to Holderman.
He is hopeful that a Bureau of Rail Freight grant application will turn out to provide funding for the next step in the project. The borough also applied for $109,514 in CDBG funding for next year through Centre County.
“The real goal is to be able to connect both sides of the park and make them accessible for everyone,” said Holderman.
