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Water Street Wall Repairs

Back in November, a Wall along Water Street in Spring Creek in Bellefonte collapsed, leading to occasional detours when entering downtown. on Friday, PennDOT gave an update on the repairs as well as other projects in North-Central Pennsylvania.

While updating us on the South border stream wall, PennDOT for District 2 also announcing plans for 85 projects both new and ongoing in the 9-County area. All those projects amounting to nearly $264 Million. PennDOT District 2 Executive Tom Prestash saying: “Here we had part of the wall taken out in November and we’re here to get it completed this year.” PennDOT says the wall repair will cost $393,000. After the wall collapsed in November, PennDOT placed a temporary retaining wall and both lanes of Water Street were subsequently opened.

District 2 Construction Manager Marc Maney says they now have a plan for permanent repairs. Maney adding: “HRI out of State College, PA was the successful low bidder for this project. They just started the work for this project this week.” He says HRI is planning on starting the wall installation next week. Maney saying: “As far as the PennDOT schedule goes, they should be complete with the project in mid-August. As of now, the contractor HRI feel that they can get done earlier than that.”

Much of the Bellefonte waterfront is lined with timeless cobblestone walls. Maney says the new wall will be a roughly 40ft long soldier pile wall. Maney adding: “We’ll put piling into the ground and have timber lagging in between those piles, and then on the face that you’ll actually see, we’ll pour concrete in front of it and stain it so it matches the natural stone that’s on either side of it.”

Regarding any possibilities of the cobblestone’s next to the collapsed section failing, Maney says there’s no concerns as of right now. Still no definitive answers from PennDOT though as to what caused the wall to collapse in the first place. Maney saying: “I’m not actually familiar with what the cause of it was. Typically, a wall like this over the time that it’s been in place. I mean, obviously there may have been some drainage issues behind it that may have caused the wall to push out over time.”

Maney says the agency does not expect any long-term or full bi-directional detours as of right now. Currently, any traffic heading Benner Pike toward downtown Bellefonte will have to take a detour onto Stoney Batter Lane, while Southbound traffic heading from Milesburg to Benner Pike can continue to use South Water Street.

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