Fixes include traffic circle and wider train underpasses
After 37 years of eyeing road safety improvements along Glenridge Road in East Glenville, the New York State Department of Transportation is rolling out an $11.7 million project to finally get the job done.
Glenville Supervisor Christopher Koetzle announced Wednesday, April 20, the project had come to fruition after receiving a letter from Scott Nowalk, project manager for the Region 1 of the DOT, indicating funding could be secured.
The train bridge after the corner of Glenridge Road and Hetcheltown Road currently has a traffic light because only one vehicle can travel under at a time. Further up the road, there is another train bridge that has a tight fit for two cars to get through. Both of these issues will be addressed in the project, which involves widening the road to allow two cars through the first bridge and a more comfortable fit through the second bridge. In addition, a roundabout intersection is planned at Glenridge Road and Maple Avenue.
I am very excited that when it is all said and done, the bridge will be able totake two lanes of traffic, said Koetzle. `They are not going to raise [the bridge] at all so they are going to at least expand it so two cars can comfortably go through it at the same time.`
Both train bridges have a 10-foot, 5-inch clearance, so larger trucks and vehicles cannot pass through, but raising the height to the standard 16-foot clearance would require a hefty amount of additional work to regrade the train tracks.
`A train can’t go up much of a hill, so the grading on railroad tracks has to be done very gradually,` said Carol Breen, public information officer for Region 1 DOT. `It would double the cost of the project the more important aspect of this project is widening [the road].`
To adjust the tracks properly, the train tracks would have to gradually incline for miles in both directions. Around 80 percent of the project is federally funded, with the remaining funding coming from the state.
`We have been able to focus the scope of work in a way that allows us money to complete the project,` said Breen. `We have been working with the community for several years the community needs something done there.`
The average daily traffic count for the project’s section of roadway is 10,000 travelers. Also, there were 27 accidents for that portion of roadway from Jan. 1, 2010, to Nov. 30 of that year. For a five-year period from Jan. 1, 2005, to Nov. 30, 2010, there were 135 accidents, said Breen. These accidents aren’t necessarily tied to the train bridges.
Bids were opened for the project on March 17 and closed the same day, but Breen said advanced notice was given for the short bid period. The process generally takes 45 days to complete, she said, and while a bidder hasn’t been chosen, the apparent low bidder came in at $11.7 million. According to DOT’s website, the cost of the project was estimated to be $13.6 million.
`When we fist started looking at it, it was quite a long time ago,` said Breen.
The project is expected to begin this summer with a gas line to be relocated, which will result in Glenridge Road having short-term single lane closures and being closed for one week between Bruce Drive and Blue Barn Road. The road will be closed outside of the school year.
In 2012, work will focus on roadway reconstruction and widening the train bridges, with the first bridge to be completed that year. The second bridge expansion will be completed along with the proposed roundabout in the final year of the project, 2013.“
