Aging Callicoon bridge to be replaced by 2011

Public meeting scheduled

By TOM KANE

HORTONVILLE, NY - The bridge that crosses the Delaware River at Callicoon will be replaced because of signs of wear. The announcement was made at the monthly meeting of the Town of Delaware Board on August 16.

The New York Department of Transportation (NYDOT) will hold a public meeting at the Hortonville Fire House in Hortonville on September 12 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. “The meeting is not a public hearing but a public information meeting to let people know what is going to happen with the bridge and to get their in-put on details,” said Lance Lee, NYDOT project developer.

The Joint Bridge Commission of New York and Pennsylvania maintain the bridges on the Upper Delaware River. There are 10 bridges that cross the river from Matamoras, PA to Hancock, NY. The southern most five are maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and the remaining five are maintained by NYDOT

The Callicoon Bridge, which was built in 1961, will be replaced by a bridge of a similar design, Lee said.

“We’re holding the meeting so we can learn what people want in the new bridge,” he said. “We will start the meeting with a formal presentation and then ask people what they would want in things like detour routes, method of construction, approaches to the bridge, etc.” Lee said.

There will be fewer stands or buttresses supporting the bridge, he said. “We have a couple of options. We can build a new bridge along side the old one, or we can follow a staged construction with one side being built while the other handles the traffic.”

If a bridge is built alongside, the old bridge will be dismantled when the new one opens.

The construction, which will cost about $7.75 million, will begin in 2009. “That may seem a long way off, but a lot of things have to happen in the area of planning and engineering,” Lee said.

The new bridge is expected to open in 2011.