Detour signs for Grant Hill Road might have seemed permanent to some drivers after more than a year of bypassing the rural bridge, but the Normanskill Creek overpass has reopened.
The new Grant Hill Road Bridge was opened to traffic Wednesday, Oct. 22, following the completion of a $1.9 million project to rebuild the bridge, which came slightly under budget and ahead of schedule. Only 5 percent of the project tapped county funds, with 80 percent coming from the federal government and the remainder from the state.
Following the state Department of Transportation inspection of the bridge, the county traffic engineer recommended closing the bridge in July of last year. Albany County owns the bridge, while the Town of Guilderland owns the roadway.
The bridge was beyond repair, according to county spokeswoman Mary Rozak.
The former bridge was a two-span, multi-steel stringer structure with an open grate steel deck, which is now obsolete, according to county officials. The new bridge is a single-span galvanized steel bolted truss with a poured concrete deck.
“It’s a little wider and a little bit longer,” said County Executive Dan McCoy.
Dick Connery, a Guilderland resident, had regularly ridden his bicycle over the bridge before it was closed and was pleased to see it open again. Connery was the first bicyclist to roll across the new bridge.
“Over a year, we have been waiting for this bridge because it is the safest route up to Voorheesville,” said Connery. “I’ve been watching the progress carefully and planned to be here to be the first bike through the ribbon to go up the hill.
While the bridge was closed, Connery said he would sometimes ride along the outside of Route 20 and occasionally traverse Johnstown Road. He tries to avoid cars as much as possible and rides early in the morning to beat the traffic.
Connery said there would be a “crowd” of town bicyclists on Saturday morning to kick off the reopened bridge.
“I’m heading up to Voorheesville for coffee right now,” he said. “This is really late for me. I usually go out before breakfast.”
Mary Lou Connolly, an Albany County legislator from Guilderland, welcomed the new bridge and was the first motorist to driver over it.
“It’s wonderful because it will … save people a little bit of time in the morning and on their way home at night,” said Connolly. “We need to start doing the infrastructure and every time we can do it, it’s wonderful.”
According to a 2010 study, the bridge had a daily average of 4,750 vehicles crossing it.
Albany County is responsible fully or partially for 77 bridges. There are three bridges the county has scheduled for rehabilitation or replacement over the “next couple of years,” said Rozak. County officials have also targeted one bridge for demolition.
Rozak said the Pictuay Road bridge in the Town of Bethlehem and the Tan Hollow Road bridge in the Town of Westerlo are under construction and will be completed before December.
Previous replacement came too late
Unlike the recent Grant Hill Road bridge replacement, a previous incident left local officials scrambling to find a solution.
A Voorheesville contractor on Sunday afternoon, June 8, 1958, was driving over the bridge in his truck with a mounted backhoe when the bridge collapsed, crashing his vehicle on its side in five feet of water in the Normanskill Creek, according to an Altamont Enterprise and Albany County Post article published the Friday following the incident.
The newspaper article noted the Voorheesville man “miraculously escaped serious injury” during the incident. State police had impounded the truck to check its weight, with the bridge having a 4-ton capacity at the time.
This spurred a confrontation between then Guilderland Supervisor John E. King and the U.S. Army over replacement of the bridge, according to a Knickerbocker News article from July 30, 1958, printed in the Altamont Enterprise.
King — in a self described “squeeze play” — threatened to install permanent barricades on Grant Hill Road, replacing the temporary barricades, unless the county or Army replaced the bridge. The temporary barricades had already blocked access to the entrance of the National Guard’s 238-acre rifle range, according to the Knickerbocker News.
County officials had requested the Army to supply one of its unused portable bridges from its Voorheesville Supply Depot, but the secretary of the Army reportedly denied the request.
The county eventually agreed to replace the collapsed bridge at an estimated cost of $120,000, according to an Altamont Enterprise published Nov. 21, 1958. The bridge was reopened nearly a year later.