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June 11, 2010

EDITORIAL: Bridge misery must be averted for others

Press-Republican

Gov. David Paterson is in Crown Point today to put the official shovel into the ground as the new Lake Champlain Bridge is about to be rebuilt. We're glad he's here, glad the bridge is being built and glad nobody plunged to the bottom of the lake because the old one was so out of repair.

What we also hope is that the state is doing a better job of monitoring other bridges than it did with this one, because it has never been explained to most people's satisfaction whether the Lake Champlain Bridge deteriorated too precipitously to do anything about or instead had it not been properly attended.

At any rate, the old Champlain Bridge, which accommodated 3,400 cars a day, was determined impassable last fall and closed. That cost New York, Vermont and the federal government millions of dollars and exacted a toll on local residents upon which you couldn't put an accurate assessment.

The new one, to be paid for according to a federal-state-state formula of 80-10-10, will cost just under $70 million. Like the old one, it will span the lake from Crown Point to Addison, Vt. When it is finally complete, it will relieve what has become a sentence of despair in southern Essex County.

The state has taken a number of steps to help with employment, commercial and lifestyle setbacks presented by the removal of the one direct link between New York and Vermont.

It first established a bus service after the Ticonderoga Ferry closed in January. Buses were run between points in southern Essex County and the Essex Ferry, which the state subsidized to run free of charge during the interruption.

The Ticonderoga Ferry, which had run later than usual to accommodate the need, resumed in April, early for that craft, for people to get across the lake to sustain their livelihood. Some local merchants said they'd lost 20 percent of their business after the bridge was closed Oct. 16, 2009.

A new ferry was opened at Crown Point Feb. 1 so passengers could move without cost and without sacrificing hours everyday to just transportation, and a second slip was added at the end of April.

The Essex County Industrial Development Agency established a program to boost businesses that lost revenue because of the interruption of traffic between New York and Vermont.

All of this betokens aggressive action of state and local officials to help residents of the region contend with the sudden, unexpected absence of the Lake Champlain Bridge. For that, the area should be grateful.

At the same time, it is a reminder that the state and federal governments must remain vigilant over their bridges to head off future repetitions. The State Comptroller's Office has said the Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City, the Peace Bridge in Buffalo and the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge are all in worse condition than the Lake Champlain Bridge was when it was closed as a threat to safety.

What happened to Essex County residents must not befall others anywhere.

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