Repairs to begin on aging walls at the Centre County Courthouse. Get ready for road closures
Construction is scheduled to begin within four weeks to repair the aging retaining walls that flank the Centre County Courthouse, work that is expected to cause traffic disruptions for nearly a year in downtown Bellefonte.
The $2.14 million project is set to be a long-term fix for the walls believed to date back to at least 1900. The county was told the need for repairs was a “borderline emergency situation,” Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said during a May meeting.
Work along the narrow streets is slated to be carried out in two phases. The retaining wall along the north side of East High Street is set to be repaired first, followed by the wall along the south side of the road.
East High Street between North Allegheny and North Penn streets is scheduled to be closed within the next four weeks through at least April, the borough wrote Thursday in a Facebook post.
East High Street between South Allegheny and South Penn streets is expected to be closed from April through at least September.
How courthouse operations will be affected has not yet been determined, Court Administrator Kendra Miknis wrote in a text message to the Centre Daily Times. Any decision would be made by Centre County President Judge Jonathan Grine.
Conversations have included everything from moving some operations to the Centre County Courthouse Annex across the street or to elsewhere in the borough.