Monday, August 6, 2018

Gobsmacked by the Truck Detour

As Gossips reported yesterday, during the construction of the roundabout at the intersection of Route 9G and Route 23, trucks coming north on Route 9G and wanting to cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge will be detoured through Hudson--across the city on Third Street, up Columbia Street to Park Place, over Park Place to Warren Street, up Warren Street to Worth Avenue, and on to Route 9 where, at the intersection with Route 23, they will head west to the bridge. It's an astounding detour, nine and a half miles long, apparently necessitated by the fear that "the work zone area will not be wide enough for trucks to pass"--no matter that our streets are barely wide enough for trucks to pass.

With the prospect of more trucks rumbling through our streets and navigating the tight turns around the public square and onto upper Warren Street, I wondered if the City of Hudson had ever been consulted before this detour was decided on. Interestingly, Hudson seems to have been left out of the conversation. On March 23, after the public information meeting about the roundabout, Richard Moody reported in the Register-Star:
The state contacted several local officials and stakeholders, who gave their approval to the project, including officials from Olana and the Thomas Cole historic sites, Greene County Legislature Chairman Kevin Lewis, Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley, Greenport Town Supervisor Kathleen Eldridge, state Sen. George Amedore Jr., R-46, and Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, D-106.
Neither the mayor of Hudson nor any other city official is mentioned among the "several local officials and stakeholders," but it is doubtful that the scope of the project as it was presented to the local officials and stakeholders for approval back in March included the plan to detour trucks into Hudson. Gossips was at the informational meeting in March, and it never occurred to me to ask or even to wonder if the construction of a project three miles from the city limits might necessitate detouring trucks into Hudson.

 Gossips spoke with Mayor Rick Rector this morning who asserted he had not been consulted and had received no advance notice of the detour. He is pursuing the issue with the Department of Transportation and other representatives. 
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7 comments:

  1. peterAugust 6, 2018 at 1:30 PM

    One solution would be for trucks coming north on 9G to make a right turn on County Rte. #14 just south of Olana, then a left turn headed north on Middle Rd., then a left on #23 and across the bridge. This would be shorter than the proposed detour, and would avoid
    Hudson completely. Although I suppose DOT has 600 reasons why those routes aren't fit for heavy truck traffic...

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  2. unheimlichAugust 6, 2018 at 1:42 PM

    Besides the State-owned loop road at the community college, there's the intersection at Routes 9G and 23 (at Stewart's) where unhappily east-bound trucks could reverse direction by swinging wide into the west-bound exit for Rte. 9G from Rte. 23. Already westbound traffic on Rte. 23 would have to be prohibited from exiting there, but they'd be encouraged to use Worth Ave. or Middle Road instead. Alternately, there's Route 14 to 31 to 23.

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  3. 736_Warren_StAugust 6, 2018 at 2:27 PM

    Or just divert them onto the service road at the college, put a temporary traffic light at the Eastern end of that road and the problem is solved. Less than a mile detour and one traffic light instead of almost a dozen on the current detour.

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  4. SlowArtAugust 6, 2018 at 4:07 PM

    The whole thing is a colossal waste of money if you ask me. I've never seen any traffic problems there that would necessitate building a circle. If it's money they are after write all road workers a bonus check and call it a day.

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    Replies
    1. unheimlichAugust 6, 2018 at 5:03 PM

      There have been enough traffic fatalities there so that something had to be done.

      Delete
  5. Marty DavidsonAugust 6, 2018 at 4:21 PM

    Trucks should go North on 3rd Street for about 1.5 miles to that road Colarusso has on the left, pull in and make a U-turn and then continue South on 3rd Street to 23 West!

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  6. VincentAugust 8, 2018 at 8:46 PM

    Yer Hudsons Mayor was left out of the discussion ???

    ReplyDelete

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