More funding announced for Bald Eagle Valley Trail

LOCK HAVEN, PA – Clinton County Planning Director Katherine de Silva announced on Thursday a $1 million grant for another link of the Bald Eagle Valley Trail. She told the county commissioners at their voting meeting the grant is from the federal government and through PennDOT’s Transportation Alternative Program.

She said the money is for the trail’s Phase 5, on the east side of the work now being carried out on an old railroad bridge over the Susquehanna River linking Wayne and Pine Creek townships. de Silva said she was “very happy” to make the announcement and thanked PennDOT’s District Two for its assistance in obtaining the grant.

The county planning director said Phase 5 comes down off the bridge on its east side into Pine Creek Township, and makes its way over to River Road, which connects up to the Tiadaghton Elm site at Pine Creek and the border with Lycoming County.

She said items such as the timeline, bid process and completion will all be laid out by PennDOT at a kickoff meeting sometime after the grant contract is received. “We anticipate engineering design, permitting and right-of-way acquisition to take a year. Possibly we could bid the project over the Winter 2023/24, and look at construction in 2024.”

Thursday’s funding announcement came as the commissioners formally approved a motion to seek $249,182 in funding from the Commonwealth Financing Authority Greenways Trails and Recreation Program; that grant would provide for a link from the Clinton County Historical Society Castanea Train Station into Lock Haven by way of Hanna Street.

de Silva had told the commissioners earlier this week that trail path would go by the Chestnut Grove facility to be developed along Bald Eagle Creek as it loops into Lock Haven.