City
of
Altoona — On
Call
Design and
Engineering
Services
2023-2026 —
Townsend Park
The City of Altoona transformed a problematic former pond and upstream greenbelt into a safer, more resilient public amenity through phased stormwater, pond and dam improvements. A multi-year effort including flood studies, major storm sewer upgrades, detention basin enhancements and planned pond reconstruction also helped to secure grant funding to support design and construction.
The City acquired land for a public park that included an existing pond. The pond had water quality issues including algae blooms and deposited sediment. The pond was originally constructed as a private farm pond and was not constructed to current state standards for ponds and dams. In addition, local residents expressed concerns to the City about frequent flooding on private properties along a greenbelt corridor upstream of the new park. Open spaces along this greenbelt had been planned to act as dry stormwater detention basin, but high water had not been expected to encroach onto adjacent private properties. The original scope of the project was to redesign the pond into a better public amenity by removing the collected sediment, providing improved fish habitat and reconstructing the dam to meet current safety standards. When resident concerns about flooding were expressed, a neighborhood scale flood and storm capacity study became the first phase of work, leading to construction of a large diameter storm sewer extension in 2023. This project included upgrades to several wet and dry detention ponds and a pre-cast concrete arch culvert which allows flows from very large storm events to pass under an roadway which had been blocking surface flows. Phase 2 construction started in 2025 to improve a sediment forebay upstream of the existing pond. Reconstruction of the existing pond and dam is planned for 2026. These design and planning efforts led to grant awards of $750,000 to offset some of the City's costs to design and construct these projects.