Bridges will account for sizable portion of cost
Albany County officials and local advocates are anticipating a decision on a federal grant that could very well shape how soon the county Rail Trail might come to fruition.
The project, now more than 20 years in the making, has secured $2.4 million in funding under the Federal Transportation Improvement Plan, but that will not cover the cost of completing the 9-mile trail, said Mary Duryea, a spokeswoman for County Executive Michael Breslin.
We haven’t really set a construction time to begin, because we first want to get the funding in place, she said.
But the county has applied for $5 million from the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, which would cover the remainder of the estimated $7.8 million cost of the project. Officials hope to know the result within the month.
Of the total project cost, an estimated $3 million will be spent to repair eight bridges crossing various waterways and roads. The trail would be unsafe without the work, said county Department of Public Works Commissioner Michael Franchini.
`We’re making the minimum changes that can be made to make them safe for bicyclists and pedestrians,` he said. `There seems to be a misunderstanding with some people that we’re doing something else with these bridges…we just want to make them safe.`
Of those eight bridges, he continued, two are lacking decks. The bridge over New Scotland Road has been damaged from trucks colliding with it because it doesn’t meet the clearance requirement.
`Replacing it with a premanufactured pedestrian bridge would actually be cheaper than repairing it,` Franchini said.
That replacement is estimated to cost $1 million.
Completing the trail in one go rather than building it in pieces will save on construction costs, said officials. But local advocates said if the money doesn’t come through, the funding that is in place should be spent.
`If the Department of Energy grant is not awarded, we would like to ask the county to strongly consider moving forward with a reduced scope project to build a section of the rail trail so the community can realize the value of the rail trail immediately,` said Dan Rain, co-chair of Friends of the Rail Trail, a part of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy.
`If that is not awarded to the project, it may be a long time before the $4.8 million they’re stating is necessary to complete the project all at once comes through,` he continued.
`If that funding doesn’t come through, then there aren’t really any other significant grants options right now,` he continued.
Rain said FORT has researched three ways the secured funding could be used to partially build the trail.
Information on the county’s Web site tentatively indicates that the `’best guess’ that the planning and design phase will be completed by the end of 2009 and that construction will extend into the fall of 2010.`
If funding is secured through the Department of Energy grant, it’s possible that some work may be done this year, said Franchini, but officials did not offer specifics on a timeline even if the DOE grant comes through.
`Without funding in place, it’s impossible to set a date for the rail trail’s completion,` said Duryea.
Construction would likely take one construction season, or about nine months.
The county completed purchase of the rail trail corridor form Canadian Pacific Railway in January, using a joint grant from the state Office of Parks and Recreation and the Scenic Hudson nonprofit. The trail is set to travel through the City of Albany, towns of Bethlehem and New Scotland and the Village of Voorheesville.“