BANGOR – If all goes according to plan, work on a park at Bangor Waterfront could begin next year.

The 14-acre space earmarked for the park runs from the end of Railroad Street downriver toward the Veterans Remembrance Bridge, between the railroad tracks and the riverbank.

The parcel now is more or less a blank canvas with railroad tracks running along it. The park represents one of the final phases of public improvements proposed for what is called Bangor Waterfront.

Expected to cost about $2 million to build, the park will include pedestrian and bicycle paths, play areas for children, a skating rink, amenities including picnic tables and benches, and space for an outdoor theater to be developed later.

But before any of the construction work can begin, engineering and design plans must be completed.

Meeting at City Hall Wednesday, the City Council’s business and economic development committee voted to send a proposal for professional services to that end to the full council for a decision.

The proposal that councilors will consider is from landscape architect Pam Shadley of the Massachusetts design firm Shadley Associates.

An Orono High School graduate, Shadley designed many of the improvements made on the waterfront in recent years while employed by Carol R. Johnson Associates.

Residents with an interest in the waterfront park project might remember meeting Shadley in January, when she was in Bangor to present conceptual plans for the park and solicit public input.

Shadley Association, which would be the lead design firm, would be paid up to $151,520 for its role in the project.

Civil and electrical engineering work would be subcontracted to Wright-Pierce, an engineering firm headquartered in Topsham, which would be paid fees of up to $46,750. Pine & Swallow Environmental of Groton, Mass., would be the subcontractor responsible for soil specification work, which would cost up to $21,400.

Rod McKay, the city’s community and economic development director, said the city would cover the design costs, which total nearly $220,000, with federal funds it has on hand from the Community Development Block Grant program and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Economic Developing Special Project Grant program.

According to city documents related to the project, construction of the park would be done in four phases, the first two of which would take place in the coming year and the last two in 2009.

The plan is to begin work in the spring of each year, break for a few weeks in mid-August to accommodate the annual American Folk Festival and then continue through late fall, with the project wrapping up by Oct. 31, 2009.

Work will begin at the Railroad Street end of the parcel and end downriver, near Hollywood Slots Hotel and Raceway.

That is in part because the space traditionally used for the folk festival’s dance pavilion is the site of the new state courthouse now under construction. The dance tent and the vendors who used to set up nearby will be moved to Bangor Waterfront, likely to the strip on which the park is going to be built.