For the last several months, New York state and Vermont have been hosting public information sessions on the fate of the Champlain Bridge.
The latest was a week ago Saturday, when they held three identical public meetings in Ticonderoga to show possible designs for a new bridge and find out which bridge people would like to see replace the 80-year-old span.
The auditorium at the Ticonderoga Community Building was packed for each session, with more than 800 people altogether coming to see the conceptual bridge designs.
The bridge has been closed since Oct. 16, when an underwater inspection found massive cracks in concrete pillars. It is scheduled for replacement by summer 2011.
It is commendable that the State Department of Transportation is holding so many public meetings, getting such massive public input.
If those sessions were not so heavily scripted, it might give us more confidence that the DOT will actually consider what people want, instead of doing what it wants while claiming it took input.
At the first session, the DOT's Connecticut-based planning consultant ran the meeting, not DOT representatives. At the end, she said people could ask questions, then took just one question before thanking people for coming.
This bridge connects Crown Point with Addison, Vt., and was traveled by thousands of cars a day. Many people depended on the bridge for their livelihood. People have lost jobs because they could not reliably get to work via the ferries or a two-hour road detour through Whitehall.
A free, 24-hour ferry is being installed next to the old bridge. Gov. David Paterson has instructed DOT to open it by the end of the year. But at the public information meetings, a DOT official said it would be open by mid-January.
It would have been nice to ask about the apparent discrepancy.
The roads for the new ferry are in and pilings for its docks and ramps were driven last week.
If the DOT wants to be really open, besides making many residents on both side of the lake happy, it could announce the exact opening date for the new ferry. That would also give contractors working on the ferry infrastructure something to shoot for.
One of the ferries pushed into extended service by the bridge closure, the independent Ticonderoga Ferry, usually closes at the end of October. The owners of this ferry have done a magnificent job and kept running in adverse weather conditions until floating ice forced closure Thursday.
The Ticonderoga Ferry is a cable ferry with no ice-breaking capabilities.
We'd like to encourage the DOT to continue its policy of openness on the bridge project, and at the same time, prod its contractors to pull out all the stops and get the new ferry infrastructure in place.
Could be a great Christmas present for the Champlain Valley.
Opinion
December 19, 2009
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