KINGSTON >> The city has received state approval to move forward on a final design plan for the Greenkill Avenue Bridge replacement, a city official said Friday.
City Engineer Ralph Swenson said the state Department of Transportation has given the city the go-ahead to develop final design plans for the decaying bridge’s replacement.
Swenson said that WSP Sells of Briarcliff Manor is expected to complete the final design plan by July 1.
Those plans will eventually need state approval as well.
Swenson said he expects state approval to be given a month later. He said the project would then be put out to bid, with a contractors chosen in early 2016.
Bridge replacement work would likely begin in the spring of next year, Swenson said.
WSP Sells was hired by the city to draw up a design plan for replacing the bridge, and Swenson said the preliminary plan was completed after changes were added based on state suggestions.
In a report issued in July 2013, WSP Sells said the bridge should undergo a $3.3 million replacement. The bridge, built in 1952 and owned by the city, is too badly deteriorated to repair, the company said.
Swenson has said parts of the bridge are badly rusted.
Federal transportation funding that will pay for most of the bridge replacement project is available to the city, Swenson has said. The city’s portion of the project’s cost is expected to be about $165,000.
The bridge is about 86 feet long and is used by about 4,000 vehicles per day, according to a study conducted last year. The city has resisted closing it because doing so would force additional traffic onto the already busy Broadway corridor.
The bridge runs parallel to a railroad bridge that carries CSX freight trains. The span and its supports are maintained by the railroad.