I am pleased to announce that, with the assistance of the Columbia County Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC), funds to rebuild the Ferry Street Bridge have been secured through the NYS Department of Transportation’s Region 8 office. The first round of funding, $250,000, will become available in October 2016. This initial round will be allocated for right of way and incidentals, preliminary design, and final design.
As with all federally aided projects administered by NYS DOT, in order to receive this funding, the project must be executed per DOT’s prescribed timeline. Based on the schedule the City has been provided, bridge construction will occur in 2020.
There has been much discussion in recent months about the importance of the bridge in terms of public safety, economic development, and river access for recreational purposes. After the bridge being closed for more than a year, and many years of concern over how to fund its replacement, the commitment from the TAC and the NYS DOT to fund the Ferry Street Bridge project is a welcome and much appreciated development.
As a city, we remain hopeful that other sources of funding we’ve been actively pursuing may be secured that could potentially rebuild the bridge on a more accelerated timeline. In the meantime, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that there is indeed a funded solution on the horizon.
I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to the members of the TAC: Chairman Kenneth J. Flood, Commissioner, Columbia County Planning Department; Dean Knox, Director of Engineering, Columbia County Department of Public Works; Bernie Kelleher, Superintendent of Highways, County Highway Department; Fred Shultz, Chairman, Columbia County Traffic Safety Board; Tom Weiner, NYS Department of Transportation, Region 8; Rob Perry, Superintendent, City of Hudson Department of Public Works; Ron Knott, County Supervisor and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Public Works Committee; Matt Murrell, Chairman, County Board of SupervisorsThis announcement comes on Mayor Hamilton's 105th day in office.
COPYRIGHT 2016 CAROLE OSTERINK
Notice that The Register-Star reported the bridge is "asphalt-paved," and not wood-decked.
ReplyDeleteAside from the current bridge, is there anyone who cares what the next bridge will look like? (I know of two people anyway.)
Just watch, by the time a draft design is presented, suddenly everyone will be expressing great concern about the ugliness of the next Ferry Street Bridge.
According to the newspaper, DPW Superintendent Rob Perry said, "he'll start qualifying engineering firms and get an engineer in place to do the design."
Will Mr. Perry ask the discredited Delaware engineers, or how about the Crawford engineers, who can't even read a technical map?
To all those who'll be up in arms later, why not pay attention now, and maybe even try to influence the design beforehand?
Is that being too absurd? Gotta say it though.