BRIDGES CRUMBLE AS DOES THE ECONOMY


Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News

11-17-10 - The recent closing of the Hildebrandt Bridge in Claverack may be a harbinger of things to come in the county as bridges and the state economy crumble at an equally troubling pace.

The bridge closure on Stone Mill Road earlier this month was just the latest in a troubling pattern for bridges in the county and beyond and shines a bright light on the troubles plaguing officials trying to deal with the state’s crumbling infrastructure.

The Hildebrandt Bridge was one of a dozen bridges on a 2008 state Department of Transportation report listed as being “significantly deficient” and in need of repair. County officials said the closure resulted from a recent state inspection of the bridge that found that the span's 50-year old superstructure has deteriorated to the point where the bridge must be closed to all traffic.

In the 2008 state report card on bridges, the Hildebrandt Bridge carried a 3.9 rating, well below the 5 rating threshold set by the state as meeting standards. A rating of 7 is the gold standard assigned to new bridges. However, its 3.9 rating was actually better than nine other bridges on the report – which had ratings ranging from 3.2 (Hall Hill Road in Ancram) to 3.8 (the state Route 295 bridge in Chatham at the intersection with Interstate 90).

Other bridges listed in the report and their ratings were as follows:

The Ferry Street Bridge in Hudson over the railroad—rated 3.5
Schoolhouse Road in Stuyvesant over the railroad—rated 3.6
Hall Hill Road in Ancram over the Roe Jan Kill—rated 3.2
State Route 295 in Chatham at the intersection with Interstate 90—rated 3.8
Albany Turnpike in Chatham over the railroad—rated 3.4
County Route 9 in East Chatham over Indian Creek—rated 3.4
White Mills Road in Chatham over the railroad—rated 3.6
Millbrook Road in Claverack over Loomis Creek—rated 3.7
County Route 7A in Copake over the Roe Jan Kill—rated 3.4
Fingar Road in Greenport over the Mud Creek—rated 3.9

The report also classified the Hildebrandt Bridge – along with one on Empire Road in Copake – as “functionally obsolete” by the state, meaning the bridges are unable to meet current standards for managing the volume of traffic they carry. The Empire Road Bridge is being replaced, Copake officials said.

DOT spokesman Jennifer Post referred a question about funding for work on any of the above bridges to the state website listing current and future projects. The site lists work and plans through 2020 and none of the above bridges are in the plans there; however, according to the website, the Route 66 bridge over Claverack Creek on the border if he towns of Claverack and Greenport is slated for replacement 2018.

That may not be the case for too many more bridges in the state as a result of the dire fiscal conditions the state is facing.

In testimony last week, Interim state DOT Commissioner Stanley Gee gave a troubling update on the status of his agency amid the budget constraints it and the state is facing.

“Current and projected funding levels are driving the Department from a ‘fix it first’, preventative maintenance strategy, back toward the ‘worst first’ strategy that saw a significant deterioration of our infrastructure two decades ago,” Gee testified.

“The two-year construction program will fund rehabilitation and replacement work on 385 state and local bridges of the more than 5,500 in need of repair or replacement,” he said.

Gee also warned that further cuts will prevent his agency from doing the work it must to preserve the state’s aging infrastructure.

“Without adequate resources, DOT will be unable to perform the functions needed to preserve the infrastructure, let alone design and construct the capital projects that will be needed to improve the system in future years. And as our infrastructure ages and conditions deteriorate, the need for engineers to design more complicated rehabilitation and replacement projects will also increase. These projects take time to plan, design and construct, we need to start now,” Gee testified.

Chatham Supervisor Jesse DeGroodt has been seeking funding to replace the bridge over railroad tracks on Albany Turnpike in East Chatham, as well as the White Mills Road bridge for at least five years. Both bridges are deteriorating and in need of replacement, the supervisor said.

“They have led us to believe there would be some hope for funds in 2012 … but I don’t know. We have been promised money to work with and been told it was going to show up (in the state budget), but every year, it’s not there,” DeGroodt said, adding that in the meantime, the cost of the projects increase.

The bridge projects are estimated to cost $1.5 million to $2.3 million each and without state or federal funding, there is no way the town, with an annual budget of about $3.3 million could fund the projects on its own.

“There is no way. You’d be talking a major tax increase,” DeGroodt said.