NEW PALTZ >> Town and state officials on Monday will review the qualification of contractors to design structural improvements that will make a rail trail bridge near Springtown Road sturdy enough for emergency vehicles when nearby roads are flooded.
Supervisor Susan Zimet said the work would be done as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for New York Rising projects, which have been under review for the past two-and-a-half years.
“What they’re going to be doing is fixing the footings for the bridge,” she said. “On the rail trail they are going to fix the access so that emergency vehicles can get onto Springtown Road.”
The town has been approved for $3 million in projects that will also include improvements to a waste water treatment plant and development of an emergency operations center.
“The bridge is the first project and they’re taking it off the list because it’s a simple, doable project that we can take on and get the experience managing the FEMA,” Zimet said.
Officials said the bridge was chosen because it can be used to access areas that were cut off during Tropical Storms Irene and Lee after the Wallkill River overflowed its banks.
“When Springtown Road flooded we needed to get rescue crews over to [the west] side,” Zimet said. “We couldn’t use the bridge because right now it is not secure enough.”
Highway Superintendent Chris Marx last fall noted that the bridge had been used by vehicles after it was abandoned by the rail company.
“I was driving across that in a town truck in ’96 and that bridge was done for pedestrians,” he said.
Supporters of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail redecked the bridge to cover the gaps between railroad ties.
Under the New York Rising program, there are state agencies that take the lead in securing contractors for projects, essentially taking money out of the hands of local officials, but approval is still needed for work to be done within the municipalities.
“As soon as they open [the qualifications] on Monday, the technical committee is there, they meet, they review them, they decide who they want to recommend to Albany, it gets sent up to Albany, and Albany does the vetting to make sure everything is okay,” Zimet said.
The state has approved spending up to $3 million per community designated as being impacted by flooding from the storms, with additional funding available if there projects that involve more than one municipality.
