Scenic byway dumping only temporary

TOWN OF TUSTEN, NY — The scenic byway was temporarily less scenic last week, when piles of road materials began appearing along a stretch of State Route 97, above the intersection with Crawford Road in the Town of Tusten. The materials were generated by a New York Department of Transportation (DOT) project to replace a culvert pipe near Narrowsburg. According to Region 9 Public Information Officer David Hamburg, the dumping was a temporary measure meant to improve the project’s efficiency. “By placing the recyclable material at a nearby temporary location, it allowed the workers to stay on site and complete the job without taking time out to carry it miles away, thereby prolonging the time of the work,” explained Hamburg. “The result was reduced inconvenience to the traveling public.” DOT has since begun removing the materials and taking them to a DOT facility for storage, recycling and reuse as filler material on future projects.