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May 04
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State to stick with Fonda bridge plans
Route 30A span won’t wait for bypass study
Daily Gazette – May 4, 2009
Fonda, NY – New York State Department of Transportation officials say they will go forward with plans to replace and expand the Route 30A bridge in Fonda regardless of whether the federal government conducts a feasibility study for a bypass highway connecting Thruway Exit 28 to Route 30A in Johnstown. Initially, the DOT had intended to build a replacement span on the west side of the existing Route 30A bridge in 2010, but after public outcry the plan was shifted to be built on the eastern side. The project is scheduled to start in 2011 and will cost an estimated $5.75 million, which would include alterations at the intersection of Route 5 to make it more suitable for heavy truck traffic.
Stephan Zywiak, left, of the New York State Department of Transportation discusses the plan to replace the Route 30A bridge with Fonda Mayor Kim Flander Thursday night. The DOT conducted a special meeting with residents who could possibly be affected by the project.
“The Route 30A bridge needs to be replaced. It’s a vital enough link that we would not let it deteriorate to the point where it would have to be closed,” DOT Region 2 public information officer Alice Romanych said. “[A Fonda bypass highway] would be a 12- to 15-year project … and the bottom line is we really can’t afford to wait until that feasibility study is completed before we replace the bridge.”
U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said he’s been in contact with officials in both Fulton and Montgomery counties who want him to fight for a $2.4 million engineering and feasibility study for a bypass highway in the next federal transportation bill. Tonko said he’s ready to fight for the study because he believes a bypass highway could cut down on truck traffic and pollution in Fonda. “The feasibility study would provide for a thoughtful, analytical, steady process that gets the traffic from Exit 28 up to the Johnstown Industrial Park by circumventing the village of Fonda,” Tonko said. Supervisors in Fulton and Montgomery counties are poised to formally request the federal government provide 80 percent of the cost for the study, with the counties putting up a combined $480,000.
Fonda Mayor Kim Flander said she was surprised to hear the two county governments were lobbying for a feasibility study to build a highway bypass. She said state DOT officials told her in 2008 that constructing a bypass was not a feasible option as an alternative to replacing the Route 30A bridge. She said she supports the federal government feasibility study but wonders what the point would be after the state takes land from village residents to expand the bridge.
The bridge expansion will likely result in the state forcing the relocation of several Fonda businesses, including Antoinette’s Cafe at the eastern corner of routes 5 and 30A and Mike’s Pizza. “A year ago we talked to the state and asked them about a bypass. We were told a study was already done and based on that study it wasn’t cost effective to do the bypass,” Flander said. “If they’re going to conduct this study while they’re doing construction, I can’t comprehend why they are doing both.”
Romanych said replacing the Route 30A bridge is expected to result in the state purchasing slices of 10 properties and four entire parcels. She said the state hasn’t determined the cost of that part of the project. She said no formal study was done on the cost of building a Fonda bypass highway, but rough estimates indicate it would cost at least $35 million to $45 million.
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Aug 07
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State Shifts Planned Replacement for Fonda Bridge
Gazette Reporter – August 7, 2008
Rt 5 & Rt 30A in Fonda, NY
Fonda, NY – Despite starting design work to build to the west, the state Department of Transportation will instead build the new Route 30A bridge to the eastern side of the structure that spans the CSX railroad at Route 5 in the village.
Residents and officials were dismayed when they learned in April that DOT officials were planning to buy land and build to the west of the bridge built in 1949. DOT Region 2 design engineer Stephen Zywiak said today the change in plans, prompted by those concerns, will delay by a year the project, originally planned to start in 2010.
Zywiak said the new, three-lane bridge will provide a left-turn lane for motorists to travel west on Route 5, or Main Street. DOT officials have said the bridge carries about 11,300 vehicles daily with 13 percent of that being large truck traffic. The DOT has to perform inspections more often on the bridge due to its deteriorating condition.
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Aug 05
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Businesses to Make Way for Bridge
The Leader-Herald – August 5, 2008
Fonda, NY – Antoinette Capparello is enjoying what will be her last few months in the restaurant and catering business she owns on Route 5. Capparello will lose her cafe after 18 years, not because of price increases, foreclosure or any other of the multitude of financial troubles affecting businesses. She will close it because of a bridge.
Antoinette Capparello, left, talks with customers Richard Blowers and Robert Green.
When the New York State Department of Transportation begins construction of the new Route 30A bridge, at least two village businesses will lose their locations and three others also may be affected. Antoinette’s Cafe and Mike’s Pizzeria will be closed to make room for the new bridge. The Fairway Mobile gas station will lose about half its land to the construction. The Dairy Isle ice cream stand and Cathy’s Cafe also may be affected by the construction.
DOT spokeswoman Alice Romynch said the plans are not yet finalized, but the department is going to put the expanded bridge east of where it stands now. She said the plans should be finalized within the next few months. Construction is slated to be completed in 2009. As soon as the plans are finalized, a public hearing will be conducted to discuss the new bridge and its impact on the community, Romynch said.
The $3.5 million project will erect a new bridge replacing the almost 60-year-old structure that rises above the CSX railroad tracks. It will be raised from about 21 feet to 23 feet high, and the state will add a left-turn-only lane from Route 5 west to Route 30A south, a right-turn-only lane from Route 5 east to Route 30A south and a left-turn-only lane from Route 30A to Route 5 west.
The bridge will remain open during construction to ensure traffic is not delayed. Approximately 11,000 vehicles travel over the bridge in a given day, and about 13 percent are tractor-trailers. In 30 years, the DOT projects, the number will increase to 17,000. (…)
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Jan 01
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This is a duplicate of the listing on the fonda.org website.
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Jan 01
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