By DENISE A. RAYMO
ELLENBURG — The Clinton County portion of the Northern Tier Expressway final draft may leave State Route 11 alone through Ellenburg and Rouses Point.
But generalized improvements are planned corridor-wide to straighten and align certain roads outside villages and to improve overall user safety.
For example, pedestrian and driver sight distances are expected to be improved with changes in Clinton County to County Road 8 in Churubusco; from Route 190 to Bull Run Road in the Town of Ellenburg; and on Duprey Road and Depot Street in Mooers.
The North Country Transportation Study, which looked at the prospect of a "rooftop highway" from Watertown to Rouses Point, says these few changes in Clinton County would reduce collisions by 40 to 60 percent.
State Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Flick said some of the smaller-scale projects could be accomplished sooner, while the larger and more-expensive portions involving a possible bypass of Rouses Point would come much later, if at all.
Six spurs would feed into the proposed expressway along the entire Route 11 project, including in Franklin County at State Route 374 in Chateaugay and in Clinton County along State Route 190.
Municipal improvements in Clinton County are proposed in:
ELLENBURG
The existing roadway provides ample room for a bike lane, but it lacks formalized signage and pavement markings to clearly mark it.
Sidewalks are not connected adequately, the report states, but they may be corrected by installing a crosswalk at the intersection with Route 190 and the south side of Route 11 west of the Military Turnpike.
Street trees would also be added there to hide utility wires and poles.
ROUSES POINT
There are multiple possibilities for Rouses Point with the expressway, depending on whether a bypass is part of the final project.
"The logical connection to begin a bypass in the Village of Rouses Point is at the Route 11 and Route 2 intersection," the report states.
But multiple railroad tracks running north to south from Quebec complicate matters.
"The need to reduce the number of tracks has been discussed as a potential method to reducing the length of a bridge span required to cross the tracks, saving money," the report states.
But nothing is finalized in the draft plan.
"This gives us a road map for future highway-improvement projects in our region," Flick said. "What this gives us is to look at other opportunities or alternatives to a bypass."
CORRIDOR-WIDE CHANGES
The executive summary of the plan says the cost of creating bypasses in Gouverneur, Canton, Potsdam, Malone and Rouses Point "would outweigh the expected benefits."
With the state highways already serving that area, a $50 million bypass might not ever see funding.
But cheaper work projects could, and they could contribute to better traffic flow and safety, Flick said.
In addition to removing certain road curves, signage would be added at five-mile intervals in rural areas and closer spans near villages to remind drivers of the added traffic from the designated-bicycle lane.
A climbing lane to allow faster-moving traffic to pass slower vehicles on hills would be added to a 1.5-mile, north-bound stretch of Route 11 in Franklin County near Muzzey Road.
Passing lanes, or a third lane for specific lengths of two-lane roads, would be added in 18 sites across the corridor.
"Who hasn't gotten stuck behind a truck going 40 mph up a hill?" Flick said. "But with these passing lanes, it would bring added flow to the whole corridor.
"We're trying to get away from the idea of the rooftop highway and instead pinpoint or create a blueprint for these types of smaller improvements where we can," he said.
The executive summary concludes that "from a social and economic-development perspective, an expressway along the Route 11 corridor has been estimated to benefit the North Country region, the state of New York and the nation as a whole."
The project could create more than 3,800 jobs and add $260 million in value to the region.
"Adding this benefit to the travel-efficiency benefit could yield a cost-effective expressway," the report states.
Details on the proposed expressway will be discussed at public meetings at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Franklin County Courthouse conference room and 7 p.m. Thursday in the Clinton County Emergency Services Center in Plattsburgh.
E-mail Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepublican.com
