Pymatuning State Park (Pennsylvania) sees four major improvement projects worth $16 million in one of Crawford county’s most popular tourist attractions.
“There are a lot of improvements going on that we hope visitors will appreciate,” Dan Bickel, the park’s manager, said.
Two of the projects–improvements to the park’s Jamestown Campground and a hiking/biking trail extension in Linesville–are extensions of work that began in 2021. The work is already underway on both, Bickel added.
The two other projects in the pipeline include three miles of paving on several sites within the park, while the Tuttle Point Campground–closed for over ten years, is set to be rebuilt this year and is ready for 2023’s camping season.
Upgrades to facilities at the Jamestown Campground by replacing its six washhouse facilities started last July, with a gradual shutdown of the campground.
The campground was closed entirely at the beginning of August due to the scope of the project. It left Pymatuning with just Linesville Campground operating for the remaining 2021 camping season.
However, Jamestown will be open throughout Pymatuning’s 2022 camping season.
“Jamestown Campground will open by Memorial Day weekend — but we hope to open it even sooner,” Bickel said. “We have all-new shower buildings and a camp store at Jamestown.”
The new buildings are made of precast-cast concrete and heated. The showers are now equipped with private unisex restroom facilities.
The previous shower/washroom buildings at Jamestown Campground were made of unheated concrete block buildings that were more than 50 years old and had fallen into disrepair.
Meanwhile, an estimated $2 million worth of paving is planned for several locations within the state park, including resurfacing the roads across the park’s dam, Bickel said.
The bids for paving were due on March 17 and are under review by the state.
Paving work will include Pymatuning Dam Road, Manning Boat Launch and Orchard Boat Launch areas, Wilson Road Access area, Espyville Marina, Linesville Beach parking lot, and Jamestown Campground’s group camping area, Bickel said.
Bids for a multimillion-dollar plan to restore Pymatuning’s Tuttle Point Campground also are being reviewed by the state.
Last fall, plans were announced to rebuild Tuttle Point Campground with 112 new handicapped-accessible sites with water, sewage, and electric hookups, plus refurbish its water tower.
The bids for the construction project, estimated to be up to $9.2 million, were received by the state in January.
This story originally appeared on New Castle News.