Battered crossing
Town, worried about its structural safety, will cite motorists up to $450
It’s now high fines for making low blows to local bridge.
If you hit a bridge in Glenville, it’s going to cost you in more ways than the obvious.
The town adopted legislation on Wednesday that will levy fines up to $450 for whacking the low-slung trestle over Glenridge Road.
Discussions with engineers revealed the oft-battered bridge can’t take another hit, Town Supervisor Chris Koetzle said.
“It must be impacting the bridge at this juncture,” Koetzle said.
Bridge owners CP Rail have also agreed to erect steel crash bars, Koetzle said. But he wondered about the effectiveness, citing their closeness to the structure, which has been struck at least 40 times over the past three years.
“The debris is going to happen before it hits the bridge as opposed to while it’s hitting the bridge,” Koetzle said.
Following years of strikes, officials hope the fine will dissuade drivers, including the rigs heading toward the retail outlets located along the commercial strip.
The 10-foot, 11-inch structure has become something of a local punchline for the frequency of strikes.
Joining the crashes are near-misses, which also gobble up resources when employees are dispatched to the site to help tractor-trailers turn around.
Strikes have resulted in $50,000 in overtime for cleanup following the wrecks, which usually takes three
hours and pulls police away from responding to other calls, according to town officials.
The fines are part of a multipronged approach that will also include the installation of laser beams warning trucks of the upcoming structure, technology state Department of Transportation (DOT) said would be implemented by late-2022, Koetzle said.
The town cannot unilaterally draft a solution because Route 146 is a state road and CP Rail owns the bridge, which means buy-in from all three entities is
required.
Council member Jim Martin wants to explore re-routing traffic away from the structure, including changing its presence on navigation apps, and underscored the town had little control over the actual infrastructure.
Others endorsed a holistic approach.
“We’re at a point where no idea should be considered a bad idea,” Councilman Mike Godlewski said.
Several lawmakers and candidates have proposed additional solutions, including “dummy bars” ahead of the structure and creating a turnaround spot on town-owned land.