The Village of Richmondville’s High Street bridge has joined Schoharie County’s list of troubled infrastructure.
The bridge was closed November 23 after a state Department of Transportation review found it had deteriorated to the point where it could no longer hold a safe load, Schoharie County Department of Public Works Commissioner Tom Fagnani said Friday.
Mr. Fagnani said the 80-year-old bridge is closed indefinitely.
Because of the extent of the deterioration, repairs are impossible, he said, and the $1.5 million it would take to replace the bridge means that’s unlikely anytime soon.
“There’s also a lot of rock underneath that’s undermined,” Mr. Fagnani said. “It’s a bad situation.”
The road across the High Street bridge leads to Richmondville’s highway garage and a number of homes, but the detour out the other side is short, just three-tenths of a mile long, Mr. Fagnani said.
Though Mr. Fagnani said he’d like to be able to replace the Richmondville bridge, he said the county is still waiting for promised funding for the Howes Cave and Shady Tree Lane projects—and there’s a chance it won’t, in the end, come through.
“They’re talking another round of stimulus funding so we’re keeping our fingers crossed,” he said. “We’re hoping we can at least get to the Warnerville bridges…”
Richmondville Mayor Kevin Neary said the bridge’s safety is his number one concern, but he called it a “vital link to the community,” and said he hoped it wasn’t forgotten.
“I hope the county doesn’t forget about us,” Mayor Neary said. “We ask Commissioner Fagnani to continue to communicate with us. We are very much interested in having it replaced, but we can appreciate the cost and the county’s other prioirities.”
Mr. Fagnani said the state red-flagged the Richmondville bridge in October and a subsequent load analysis found the 15-ton bridge had some critical structural problems with closure as soon as possible recommended.