Last night, the Common Council finally authorized Councilmember Margaret Morris (First Ward), who chairs the ad hoc Truck Route Committee, to send a letter to the NYS Department of Transportation seeking information about the process of eliminating one or both truck routes passing through Hudson and requesting that trucks more than 48 feet in length be prohibited from entering Hudson.
After some comment from former mayor Tiffany Martin, who spoke against a possible increase in the number of trucks passing through Hudson on Route 9 that could result from eliminating Route 9G as a truck route and suggested that truck traffic on the Route 9G would be less problematic if Colarusso's gravel trucks were eliminated from the mix, the Council voted on the resolution to send the letter. The resolution carried, with eight councilmembers voting in favor of the resolution, and Councilmember Amber Harris (Third Ward) and Council president Tom DePietro voting against it. The other Third Ward councilmember, Ryan Wallace was absent from the meeting.
Now we eagerly await a response from DOT.
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ReplyDeleteWhile gravel trucks traveling on Rte. 9G are eliminated in the LWRP's plan for the same trucks to merely cross Rte. 9G at the causeway - i.e. the same plan which never entertained a two-lane causeway road - by the company's own admission its two-lane "Haul Road" proposal to cross Rte. 9G at the same spot would continue using the state truck route through the city whenever needed.
ReplyDeleteThe M & J Engineering truck study conducted with funds secured by Assembly member Didi Barrett show an astonishing amount of traffic on Routes 9 & 9G, where the Colarusso trucks would be crossing if their ridiculous haul road proposition was ever approved. Particularly dangerous is the proposed crossing on 9G at the bottom of the long hill descending into Hudson toward the north. Autos are often traveling at 70 downhill on that stretch, which is why local police, sheriffs, and NY highway patrol often set up their speed traps there.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the traffic that comes off of Mt Merino road onto 9G right at the bottom of the hill where traffic is going 70? The haul road is in the zone that is 30 mph. If people do not abide by the law, how is that Colarusso's problem?
Deletebringing NYS DOT into the mix is absolutely essential to solving Hudson's truck problem, given that any real solution has to involve other municipalities and the County. Sending the letter is at least a start.
ReplyDeleteThe DOT has been involved since the 2009 Holcim site plan for the state route crossings.
DeleteIn 2017, the DOT complicated things by requiring of the new applicant (who's using the same engineer), changes to the previously authorized crossing plan.
Following that, the DOT which was already frustratingly aloof, changed its policy on public access for this application alone. I tried unsuccessfully to FOIL things which are normally available to the public.
I believe it was before Tom DePietro stepped down from the Planning Board that he and other officials and Colarusso reps met with the DOT in Poughkeepsie, but the public never learned what was discussed. The only thing that I learned about it was that the most important issues to me were not discussed. (Tom won't like reading this, but he was not forthcoming about any of it.)
Far from suddenly bringing the DOT into the mix, its ongoing involvement and infamous lack of transparency has been a problem for years.
Over to you, Tom.
but in recent years