College Township is renewing its efforts to secure funding for a $3.3 million shared-use bike and pedestrian path connecting to the Penn State campus.
The 10-foot-wide, approximately 1-mile College Township Regional Bike and Pedestrian Path would run mostly adjacent to East College Avenue from Puddintown Road to an existing path at Hastings Road near University Drive. It is “a key missing link to the regional bike and pedestrian network,” Assistant Township Manager Mike Bloom told the Centre County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
“It would be viewed as an offset path off of East College Avenue trying to get bikers and hikers and walkers off of the shoulders, away from the travel lanes into a safe facility to get them from point A to point B,” Bloom said.
College Township has been exploring the concept for several years and applied for a Multimodal Transportation Fund (MTF) grant through the Commonwealth Financing Authority during the 2022 funding cycle. That application was not successful, but the township is again seeking grants through the state with a new iteration.
The township recently submitted an application for a $1 million MTF grant and plans to apply for a $1.5 million PennDOT Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside grant before the deadline in September. College Township has committed $800,000 in local funds for the project
Commissioners voted 2-0 to approve a letter of support from the county for MTF grant application. Commissioner Steve Dershem was absent.
Bloom said a few things are different this time around. The township is “working a little closer with State College Borough,” which is providing consulting support through its contract with Delta Development, a community and economic development consulting firm that has aided the borough in pursuing grants on other projects.
“In addition, we’re a little closer aligned with Penn State University,” Bloom said. “We received a support letter from them [on Monday] and also a commitment of easements. They are the single largest property holder along this corridor, so that is a pretty big win.”
As part of the land development process for the Aspen Heights student housing project on Squirrel Drive, the developer agreed to construct missing sidewalk connections along East College Avenue leading up to Puddintown Road. In exchange for a waiver for a new sidewalk adjacent to the Aspen Heights property on the south side of East College, the developer committed to filling in the gaps between WR Hickey and the Hilton Garden Inn and from the Hilton to Puddintown Road.
“The project that we’re pursuing then takes it from Puddintown up on to campus with the vision to eventually have this link to the paths in State College Borough and into campus as well,” Bloom said.
Plans for the path, he added, are consistent with the College Township’s Pedestrian Facilities Master Plan, the Centre Region Bike Plan, Penn State’s University Park Bicycle Master Plan and the Centre County and Centre Region master plans.
“It checks an awful lot of boxes in terms of needs and consistency across the board from kind of that in-depth planning perspective,” Bloom said.
If funding is awarded during the current grant cycle, work could begin in 2024 with detailed engineering, acquiring easements and environmental clearances. Construction would follow in 2025.
“There’s a lot of what-ifs and contingencies ahead of that, but… our goal is about a two-year project once we have the funding aligned,” Bloom said.
Board Vice Chair Amber Concepcion said the path will provide a long-needed safety improvement.
“It’s been a concern for a long time, that pedestrian traffic and bikes along that stretch is pretty hazardous,” she said.
Chair Mark Higgins also noted the general safety importance of dedicated bike and pedestrian paths.
“I had a friend pass away [Monday] who was a cyclist and he was in a car-bike collision on South Atherton,” Higgins said.
He added that extensive bike paths are a “major component” in areas that see a lot of tourism.
“People just love to bike all over the area from their hotel or their Airbnb and just explore,” Higgins said. “In the Centre Region you can do that for a couple of miles and then you’re on the road for a mile or two and then you’re back on a bike path. This is one of the critical missing links in the county, so great to see that moving forward.”
