TO: Batchellerville Bridge Action Committee Members
FROM: Peter VanAvery
DATE: February 10, 2003

Today's Amsterdam RECORDER contains some very interesting information about both the bridge repair project and the bridge replacement project.

The full story appears below.

THE RECORDER
Amsterdam, NY
February 10, 2003

Bridge work delayed as money is tied up

By CRAIG CLARK

Recorder News Staff

One-way traffic on the Great Sacandaga's Batchellerville Bridge will continue into the spring, at least, as funding difficulties have delayed slated repairs, a state Department of Transportation official said Thursday.

In November, the DOT instituted alternating one-way traffic on the aging bridge so it could undergo necessary repairs to string it along until a proposed replacement bridge is constructed in the next few years.

That replacement project, however, estimated to have a price tag of just under $40 million, has also been delayed at least one construction season, the DOT says. In light of the difficulties finding funds, the DOT on top of making temporary fixes this spring is also considering longer-term repairs. The DOT is now looking into an overhaul which could bring the 73-year-old Batcheller-ville Bridge along for another 10 years.

Originally the DOT had hoped to start work on the replacement bridge as early as spring 2004.

The replacement of the Batchellerville Bridge, which carries Saratoga County Route 98 over the Great Sacandaga, was the source of much controversy between sail boaters opting for a higher replacement and other activists arguing for lower options with less visual impact.

In February 2002, the DOT announced plans for the construction of a new bridge, adjacent to the existing bridge on the south side, with a 42-foot center span vertical clearance. That determination marked a compromise between 35- and 55-foot options much debated during the three years the decision was in the works.

Peter Van Keuren, a spokesman for the DOT, said Thursday that as it now stands designs for the replacement project are not expected to be complete and ready to go out to bid until December 2004.

"That date is very tentative," Van Keuren said, adding that the time line for the project could move up or be further delayed. "Pre-budget time you never know what's going to happen," he said referring to the 2003-04 state budget currently in the works.

Van Keuren said by the time designs are complete the DOT should have a good handle on the feasibility of a large-scale repair project which could breathe another 10 years of life into the bridge.

Thus far only $3 million, secured from the federal government through Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, has been earmarked for the new bridge.

In the meantime, routine inspections are being made of the bridge and in late October 2002 bridge crews reported further deterioration which needed immediate attention.

Stressing the importance of the bridge's 15-ton weight limit, the DOT instituted alternating one-way traffic on the bridge, controlled by traffic lights, until the temporary repairs could be completed. The repairs, which include retrofitting steel plates to the structure at 10 locations within a 1,700-foot portion of the bridge, were originally to have taken six to eight weeks.

Van Keuren said arriving at funding for those repairs, expected to cost between $100,000 and $120,000, was difficult. Van Keuren said the DOT has been working with the town of Edinburg, Saratoga County, and the state and has come up with the necessary funds to fix the bridge and the temporary repairs are expected to start as soon as warmer weather starts rolling in.

Van Keuren said for now the important thing is that the one-way traffic arrangement is keeping the bridge's 15-ton weight limit from being pressed.