Bellefonte Flood Wall

The Bush House Hotel in Bellefonte burned down in 2006. Since then, the property it once occupied has sat vacant.  The Bellefonte Borough Council decided to develop the area as a waterfront project to revitalize the historic town.  In order to do this, it was necessary to build a floodwall to meet DEP requirements to avoid serious flooding.  As part of the project, crews would construct a pedestrian walkway along Spring Creek from the High Street Bridge to the Lamb Street Bridge – approximately 1/3 of a mile.  They will also put up a flood wall and will fill in the land behind it, priming it for private development.

Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Pa. Fish and Boat Commission worked with the Bellefonte Borough, the consultants, and Glenn O. Hawbaker (the construction company) to install in-stream habitat improvements along the length of the flood wall.  This consisted on 150’ of 19” overhang to create the equivalent of a mudsill.  Three log vanes were installed along with distributed rock to break up the flow and provide cover for the trout along this reach of Spring Creek.  Key personnel to this effort were Joe Boston and Bob Vierck from Spring Creek TU and Tyler Neimond and Carl Lutz from PF&BC.