ELDRED, NY — A project to replace a bridge on a section of County Route 22 connecting Yulan and Narrowsburg brought the community out in force the night of May 18. 

The bridge goes over Beaver Brook in Yulan, running over the site of a dam on Toasperns Pond. The bridge needs to be reconstructed to improve the dam’s safety, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). 

The bridge and the dam will go from around 50 feet in length to around 100 feet in length; the expansion creates a wider spillway between the bottom of the bridge and the top of the dam, giving the water of Toasperns Pond a safer path during flooding situations. 

The project will replace the current bridge with one that has a 75-year lifespan, according to information distributed at the public hearing. Consulting firm Barton and Loguidice has prepared plans for the bridge, and the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) will provide a grant for 95 percent of the projected $5 million the project will cost. 

A temporary bridge will be put in place downstream of the current bridge. Construction is expected to start in April of 2024 and end in September of that year. 

Elevation and pedestrian safety

The public had concerns, many of them about the knock-on effects replacing the dam could have. 

Residents with homes on Toasperns Pond asked if the pond could be restored to its original height. “Most of the landowners do not want to see the lake level go any lower,” said one resident. “They want to see it back up to what it’s been for almost 50 years.”

At some point in the past, flashboards had been installed to raise the pond’s level about 18 inches, said the project team. Those flashboards hadn’t ever received permission, and had been taken down because they were unsafe. “[DEC didn’t remove the boards] because they wanted to lower the lake level,” said team members. “They were just saying it’s unsafe, that it’s not current standards. What I don’t know is what their position will be on raising that elevation.” 

The project team agreed to consider elevation going forward. 

Members of the public also had concerns about pedestrian safety on the bridge. 

The current bridge had around four feet of shoulder on either side of the road; the replacement bridge would maintain approximately that level. Residents asked if the bridge could be made safer for pedestrians walking across it, and for people who came to fish off it. 

Those kinds of improvements lay outside the scope of the project, said the project team. “The grant that was received from DOT is to replace the bridge. The spillway is integral with the bridge, so the grant will pay for replacing the spillway as well. But with federal funding for bridge replacement projects, the only work that we can do as part of the project is to replace the bridge.”