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Friday, February 6, 2015
Under the Bridge
On Tuesday, inspectors from the New York State Department of Transportation and engineers from Creighton Manning, hired by the City to do a technical assessment of the structure, examined the underside of the Ferry Street Bridge. John Mason has the story in today's Register-Star: "State, engineers inspect Ferry Street Bridge."
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Did I miss a public meeting on the city's plans for the Ferry Street Bridge?
ReplyDeleteWhen public conversation with Hudson's politicos happens at all, the opportunity for residents to opine generally comes after everything's been decided.
Keep out! is still the refrain which cuts across city government.
For the last year I've been offering - to any and all who are curious - all of the bridge's past engineering reports up to 2013. These documents cost me $26 at the NYS DOT, but there were no takers because there are never any takers in Hudson.
The individuals who decide too many things in this city lack imagination, often don't know very much on any subject and then bluff, and depend entirely on hired experts such as engineers whose advice is generally tainted by self-interest (the evidence for this in Hudson alone is overwhelming).
If the city did hold a special meeting to discuss the bridge, then congratulations for once.
But it's just plain wrong for anyone to claim that the bridge's ownership was ever in doubt, as proven in the state documents I purchased which nobody wants to touch.
Also, everyone knows that the bridge's wooden decking was NOT "maintained and replaced by CSX with some regularity," as we read in the story. That quotation comes from a city employee who knows very well that that task fell to concerned residents who would regularly patch the deck when CSX, AMTRAK and/or the City of Hudson DPW couldn't be bothered.
The same goes for the annual clearing of poison ivy which reaches up from beneath the bridge's pedestrian stairway. The DPW couldn't care less who gets poison ivy. It's probably even a big joke. Instead, each and every year it falls to residents do that work once the situation gets out of hand.
Exclusivity, inaccuracy, self-interest, negligence ... business as usual in the City of Hudson.
ReplyDelete"The individuals who decide too many things in this city lack imagination, often don't know very much on any subject and then bluff, and depend entirely on hired experts such as engineers whose advice is generally tainted by self-interest (the evidence for this in Hudson alone is overwhelming)."
"The same goes for the annual clearing of poison ivy which reaches up from beneath the bridge's pedestrian stairway. The DPW couldn't care less who gets poison ivy. It's probably even a big joke. Instead, each and every year it falls to residents do that work once the situation gets out of hand."
I love these paragraphs
Cheers.
DeleteI thought this bridge was owned by CXS? No? I thought that was what the hold up was...
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't been determined who owns it. Just to be on the safe side, the mayor closed not the bridge but the roadway leading to the bridge. The City wants to own it because it needs to control its access to the waterfront, but the hold up is the lack of money.
DeleteYou're correct jlezette.
DeleteThe owner of the bridge has been known for a long time, but that never stopped City Hall from attributing the "hold up" to not knowing the owner.
Thus it was either an invention or due to ignorance at City Hall that the owner was supposedly unknown.
All that anyone needed to do was to contact the NYS Department of Transportation, which is what I did out of frustration and is how I learned two years ago who owns the bridge.
That's City Hall for you. It's not like our self-important officials would ever want to learn anything from mere residents.