One man has held on to letters and correspondence spanning 40 years as he urged and waited for safety issues to be rectified at the Glenridge Road railroad bridge.
Fred Ross, a 94-year-old Ballston Lake resident, attended a recent Glenville Town Board meeting to thank the board for their efforts getting improvements made to Glenridge Road in East Glenville. 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 totaling $11.7 million 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.
Ross claims there have been many accidents over the years at the two locations and safety concerns have driven his decision to continue his push.
“There have been so many accidents under that underpass,” said Ross.
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, 2010. For a five-year period from Jan. 1, 2005, to Nov. 30, 2010, there were 135 accidents, said Carol Breen, public information officer for Region 1 DOT. These accidents aren’t necessarily tied to the train bridges.
Ross gave The Spotlight 10 different documents relating to his push to get the project started and completed. The first document dated back to March 14, 1969, and was a letter from then Glenville Supervisor Gilbert Smith. The problem appeared to be apparent even before 1969 though.
“This has been a long-standing headache, and I know of a number of people who have tried to improve the situation,” Smith said in the letter.
The second document was a newspaper clipping from the “Union-Star” in April of 1969, which printed the New York State Service Commission’s reply letter to Ross’ concerns. Samuel Madison, secretary for the commission, said Schenectady County has jurisdiction over the railroad tracks and could petition the commission for such a request.
Years later, the third document leaps ahead to a 1985 public informational open house flier for the project. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s father, Mario, was then governor of the state. Although, it appears the project didn’t gain much momentum after the meeting.
In the summer of 1993, Sen. Hugh Farley and Assemblyman James Tedisco both sent reply letters to Ross stating their concern and agreement for improvements to be made on the road.
“I share your safety concern in this matter and have written to the Regional Director of the Department of Transportation. I have asked him to apprise me of the situation concerning this underpass and any plans in the future to either refurbish or remove the structure,” Farley said to Ross in his August 1993 letter.
The following year, 1994, Tedisco again wrote Ross after the two meet at the Annie Schaffer Senior Citizen Center, which Tedisco reconfirmed has concern for the “hazardous traffic situation.”
According to a 1997 letter from Richard Carlson, planning and program management for DOT Region 1, the preliminary work was scheduled to be completed in early 1998, but now the date is another expected benchmark for the project past. The project was also much more grand in scale, with reconstruction of the actual railroad track planned instead of just widening the road. The construction costs for the larger project in 1997 were $15 million.
Former Glenville Supervisor Wayne Wagner in a letter to Senator Farley expressed the frustration for delays on the project, which were once again delayed.
“The correspondence between you and Fred Ross … reminded me of just how long-standing a problem this is,” Wagner said. “The Town of Glenville has been told on many occasions since the 1960’s that the overpass on Glenridge Road will be eliminated in the ‘near future.’ Yet, all of these deadlines have come and one. Our concern is that the next target date of 2004 will also come and go with nothing having been accomplished.”
Now, over 40 years later with the construction of the project underway, Ross is breathing a sigh of relief and a smile.
“I’m 94 years old, maybe I will live to see the results,” said Ross.
