The Dryden Town Council voted about a year ago to replace the one-lane bridge along Freese Road with a new one-lane bridge, not a two-lane bridge, after a lengthy discourse with community members of the Hamlet of Varna.
The construction project, along with the repairs to the bridge along South George Road, would be funded partly with $3.64 million in state grant money that the town received from the Bridge NY program. It is also expected that the county would reimburse the town for the local share of both projects, though it appears now that it is only willing to cover the full local share of the South George Road bridge project and only a portion of the reimbursement for the Freese Road bridge project because the new bridge will not be built with two lanes.
3 months ago in Local jsalzone Photo: WHCU
ITHACA, N.Y. (WHCU) – It’s a major stamp of approval for the Town of Dryden’s plan to replace the Freese Road Bridge.
Deputy Supervisor Dan Lamb says the town’s design has been accepted by the federal highway administration, along with the State Department of Transportation and Historic Preservation.
“Our top priority for replacing this bridge was to have it weight unlimited so emergency vehicles could go across and agricultural vehicles…Right now that can’t happen …rather than making two lane or one lane the top priority, we really wanted it safe and unlimited in weight. And so does our state department of transportation,” said Dan Lamb, (D), Town of Dryden Dep. Supervisor.