NORWICH – Chenango County is competing with New York State for the same pot of federal money allocated for highway and bridge repair projects in Region 9, and the fate of the Main Street Bridge in Oxford hangs in the balance.
Chenango County Department of Public Works Director Randy Gibbon reported in late October that major portions of federal money previously allocated to regions for locally-administered projects would be held back by the state. The cut-back for Chenango would total $11.5 million over five years, including the estimated $3.2 million span over the Chenango River as well as planned improvements to county Routes 35, 32 and 34.
Now, after several conversations with state DOT personnel, Gibbon said the 56-year old bridge may be back on the list for replacement in December 2009.
“That’s with an emphasis on ‘maybe,’” he said before a meeting of the Public Works Committee last week.
Gibbon questioned how the state could de-obligate projects that have been on the books for years and a portion of federal funds have already been expended on them. Chenango County paid $200,000 for an engineering study of the Oxford bridge’s replacement. In addition, foundation cracks were repaired in 2006.
Federal law states that projects must be completed within a specified time period, the DPW director said, and, if exceeded, the money expended would have to be paid back.
“We are not stopping the project, the state is taking us off the list,” said Gibbon.
When reached for comment Friday, a Region 9 representative said the state had adopted “a new concentration on bridge safety,” but could not say whether the Oxford bridge would be funded. On Monday, a NYSDOT representative said the Main Street Bridge was never eliminated from the list in the first place.
“It was always on the program. This has always been something they had intended to do,” said NYSDOT Communications Department spokesman Charles Carrier.
Carrier said the NYSDOT “has a role to play” in cutting the state’s budget, however, and cuts were being made to all regions.
“The governor made it clear in a budget bulletin at the beginning of the month that the state is in a very difficult financial situation. And DOT has a role to play. We will concentrate on safety maintenance to our core system. Other projects that don’t fall into that context may be differed. We are trying to work through that program, with safety in mind first,” he said.
Contrary to what Gibbon initially reported to committee last month, DOT regions across New York are not being cut uniformly. In Region 9, which includes Chenango, counties have no say in how many federal dollars state roadway and bridge projects in the region receive. In more heavily populated, urban areas, such as Region 4 in Rochester, counties have a municipal planning organization that decides how much state roads and bridges, county roads and bridges, etc. will receive in the region.
“It looks like regions with municipal planning organizations that serve large numbers of people will keep more (federal dollars) than regions like ours where we don’t have them,” Gibbon said.
“I’ve got a feeling regional directors are holding back from smaller areas. It’s a question of getting the most numbers of people best served. In our case, in Region 9, it’s Interstate 86. That’s where our money’s going.”
Carrier confirmed that locally-administered project take-backs would play out differently in different regions, but he did not comment on whether Interstate 86 (formerly NYS 17) would receive previously-designated local dollars.
Gibbon said the take back leaves Region 9 with $20.7 million through 2011 for projects in Otsego, Sullivan, Tioga, Chenango, Delaware, Schoharie, and Broome, including those in the City of Binghamton.

Route 12
The NYS Route 12 Task Force met last week at the Chamber’s offices in the Eaton Center in Norwich for the purpose of presenting the final draft of the second phase of an ongoing corridor study. The draft will go before the public in early December.
Phase II identified potential long-term alternatives and/or proposed improvements for state Rt. 12, including a four-lane highway connecting Binghamton to Utica. After six years in the making, however, it was determined that none of the new improvements met the evaluation criteria.
The report’s final recommendations state: “... any additional funding made available to the NYS Route 12 corridor may be best allocated to the type of localized safety, mobility and capacity improvements suggested in Phase I, as opposed to the large-scale corridor improvements studies in Phase II.”
Of all the alternatives analyzed, the only concepts that demonstrated a favorable benefit-to-cost ratio was the county Rt. 32 arterial around the City of Norwich as identified in Phase I of the study. Two other alternatives identified in Phase I may warrant a further, more detailed, project study. Those alternatives were a bypass around Sherburne and an I-88 connector north of Chenango County.
According to Commerce Chenango President Maureen Carpenter, there is funding to improve state Rt. 12 alongside Raymond Corporation in Greene. The project is estimated at $21.2 million and is anticipated to be paid for with federal, state and Rt. 12 earmarked funds. The Greene project, if moved forward, could begin 2009-2010, she said.
“One of the discussions that was had is that the Greene project could move forward and it would be the hope that the Task Force (the chamber would take the lead as in the past) could initiate the coordination and requests for additional earmarks that could then be used to finish the upgrades to county Rt. 32, (estimated at 14 million) based on the economic benefit analysis and cost, Rt. 32 was seen as the most feasible.”
“Combined, the Greene project and the completion of upgrades to Rt. 32 could have a significant impact on the safety and mobility of the Route 12 corridor,” said Carpenter.
Meetings for the draft presentation are scheduled from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. for the public and from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. for businesses on Dec. 4 at Stanford Gibson School in Norwich.