The bad news:
Cobleskill’s bridge and road work projects, planned for 2011, will overlap.
The good news:
The “Cobleskill’s open” signs the state Department of Transportation has already promised for I-88 will now list individual businesses.
That’s the news—good and bad—that a half-dozen downtown representatives got at a meeting Wednesday with DOT officials.
DOT plans to close the Route 7 bridge at Stewart’s for three months next summer and replace it with a pre-cast structure, open on the top, the agency’s Mark Brodeur said.
There will be sidewalks on both sides, utilities will be moved underground, and there will be period lighting, which the village will lease from National Grid.
That project, said Anne Myers, president of the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce and provost at SUNY Cobleskill, will overlap with the county’s plan to replace two bridges on the Warnerville Cutoff.
The Cutoff will also be closed during construction.
“There’s going to be a real confluence of jobs over the summer,” Dr. Myers said.
“We just got confirmation that the Warnerville work will bleed into next summer.”
Throw in the village’s planned rehab of Rose Street, a stone’s throw from the Stewart’s bridge, and the college’s redesign of its Route 7 entrance just west of the bridge, and it’s no wonder people like Scott and Kathy Kelley, of Kelley Farm and Garden are worried.
Mr. Brodeur told the group that DOT’s plans are to close the bridge in late May as soon as SUNY’s out of session.
But the Kelley’s asked for—and got—another month after pointing out that’s their busiest time of year.
“That’s not a problem,” said DOT’s Tom Miller, though he also pointed out that will move the completion of the project back a month.
Dr. Myers said that won’t be a problem for the college.
Though people who know Cobleskill will be able to find their own way around the construction, DOT will be detouring drivers on I-88.
Initial plans were to post only “Detour” and “Businesses Open” signs there, but DOT reps brought samples of signs listing individual businesses along with them Wednesday.
There are space restrictions, however; it will be up to the businesses to decide which of them will be listed.
Ms. Kelley asked how much of an impact a repeat of the state’s budget delay would have on the bridge work.
Dave Hamburg, a DOT public relations spokesman, said this year’s delay has pushed some projects back.
“Unfortunately, there’s know way of knowing if it will happen again,” he said, but DOT’s portion of the next budget is already in place.
The next step for local businesses will be deciding who will be listed on the I-88 signs; DOT needs the names by the middle of the month.
“We’ll try as hard as we can, but we can’t promise there won’t be delays,” Mr. Miller said. “We’ll do everything we can to make it go smoothly, but we can tell you things are not going to be easy.”