OXFORD – The bridge in the center of Oxford has little time left. Tuesday night at a public meeting, officials explained the situation. “We’re lucky if we get another three to four years out of this (bridge),” said Chenango County Public Works Director Randy W. Gibbon.
The Oxford truss bridge has been in use for nearly 53 years. “The bridge is old. It’s just the way it goes; these things don’t last forever,” said Project Manager David L. Kennicutt. Kennicutt works for Delta Engineers, which has been evaluating the condition of the current bridge and will be responsible for the technical supervision in construction of a new one.
The bridge received a major overhaul in 1990 and the county recently had to perform emergency repairs. The bridge is regularly inspected, but the damage found at the last inspection in 2005 was seriously worse than predicted. “The severity of this snuck up on everybody. The way these are designed, it can be difficult to tell the actual extent of the damage. When the damage does become obvious, it is often worse than it appears and these things will get exponentially worse in a short amount of time,” said Kennicutt.
The expected cost of building a new bridge will be $2.4 million. Federal aid is expected to cover 80 percent of the cost. “It’s pretty much a given,” said Gibbon. The state also offers aid, but it can vary between 15 and 5 percent. “This is not a guarantee, but typically we (Chenango County) have been paying for 5 percent or a bit more of these projects in the past, but we can’t really know for sure,” said Gibbon.
The meeting was geared at informing the public and then getting ideas from the community. “At this point everything is pretty much on the table,” said Kennicutt. The organizers said they were pleased with the turnout last night. “It’s good to see so many people,” said Gibbon.
The project’s basic goals are to create a practical and efficient bridge that can fit into Oxford’s historic aesthetic landscape. “We want the new bridge to be an improvement on Oxford,” said Kennicutt. A few citizens wanted to build another truss bridge, but engineers warned that they have many technical problems and can be more costly to build and upkeep.
The bridge is flanked by two historical districts that can complicate the construction procedure. Also engineers will have to account for environmental and archeological issues. The final decision for the project rests in an array of elected officials and DOT representatives. Approval from the DOT, local communities and the county must be reached. The final project also must adhere to both federal and state requirements that can be “strict,” said Kennicutt.
The project is expected to begin in 2008 and will take at least one year to compete but will quite possibly take longer.