The Route 23 bridge over the Schoharie Creek in the Greene County town of Prattsville is slated to be replaced with a longer, wider span, and the state may need to take some private land to do it.
Representatives from the New York State Department of Transportation announced the details of the plan at a public hearing on Wednesday, May 27.
The DOT has been working on a plan to replace the bridge since 2014, and it put forward three possible plans for a new bridge at a public meeting last December.
Since then, however, the plans have changed, according to Bryan Viggiani, a DOT spokesman who was at the meeting.
Now, the DOT’s “preferred alternative” for the bridge is a larger, 385-foot span that will allow more “channel widening” of the Schoharie Creek’s stream bed to prevent future flooding in Prattsville, Viggiani said. The plan for the new bridge allows for 288 feet of channel, while the current bridge only allows for 180 feet of channel.
After Prattsville and the Route 23 bridge were inundated by floodwaters during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, an engineering report found that the bridge may have contributed to the high floodwaters on Main Street.
Above: The Route 23 bridge over the Schoharie Creek in Prattsville. Photo by Doug Kerr.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has been working on a flood mitigation strategy for the hamlet that involves replacing the bridge and widening the stream’s channel.
“The new design will allow for channel widening that will be wider than any of the three alternatives that we put forward in December,” Viggiani said. “We wanted to be able to respond to earlier concerns that the new bridge design allow for as wide a channel as possible.”
The new plan for the bridge may require the state to use eminent domain to purchase portions of up to five or six properties, including one house, Viggiani said.
“There are some potential property takings,” he said. “Largely slivers of land, but in the worse case scenario, one private home.”
The home that may be taken sits across the street from the mouth of the current bridge on the Prattsville side of the Schoharie Creek, Viggiani said. The DOT has been in contact with that property owner, he said.
The new bridge will be 385 feet long and 37 feet wide, with space for two lanes with shoulders and a sidewalk on one side. The current bridge is only 250 long and 22 feet wide, with little shoulder space and no sidewalk, Viggiani said.
Although the new bridge will be bigger, its silhouette will be smaller — the current bridge, which was built in 1927, is a steel truss bridge with curved beams that rise above the roadway. The new bridge will be a two-span steel structure that will rest on a pier in the middle of the Schoharie Creek, with no need for trusses, according to Viggiani.
“It will be a nice-looking bridge that will do its job,” Viggiani said. “The plan is to build one with a 75-year lifespan.”
Wednesday’s public meeting was the beginning of a public comment period on the plan for the new bridge. Comments are being accepted until June 8 by the project’s manager, Michael Cukrovany, at 518-457-9584 or via email at Mike.Cukrovany@dot.ny.gov.
If the plan is approved, the DOT expects to begin construction of the bridge in 2016 and to complete it in 2018.
The Prattsville bridge is one of 105 bridges across New York that will be repaired or replaced using $518 million in funds from FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The program aims to strengthen the state's bridges to withstand future natural disasters and floods.
