June 2021 - Page 2 of 4 - Keeseville's Historic Bridges

Call To Action: Essex County Board of Supervisors

By matt | June 9, 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

CALL TO ACTION- Essex County Board of Supervisors
Dear Board of Supervisors,
On June 3, 2008 the Essex County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the rehabilitation of the Upper Bridge (Mill Hill / Liberty St) in Keeseville.
Due to the politics of two counties being involved the project was never completed. You supported our bridge years ago, please help us again. Just because something got complicated, it doesn’t need to be abandoned.
Ever since the community of Keeseville has been waiting for our Historic Bridge to be reopened. There are major traffic issues, and our intersections are overwhelmed with traffic. There have been many accidents, including a few fatalities.
There is more Federal and State infrastructure available than in the previous ten years.
The RAISE federal grant deadline is July 12th. We need your support. There are other grants available as well. Those deadlines are fast approaching.
Upper Bridge DetailsAADT- 1900+ in 2008 (61.54% population increase since 2010)
Detour: 1.0 Mile (Dangerous Intersection is now overwhelmed with traffic from all directions due to closing of Upper Bridge/ location / geography of the river)
Features:-Registry of National Historic Places-Civil Engineering Landmark (very notable)-The Last remaining through truss bridge by Murray, Dougal, and Company in the World-Post Civil War Ear Landmark – (Built by civil war vets, and most likely built with repurposed civil war cannons – Pheonix Iron & Steel Company, Pheonixville PA)-Having this bridge open will support new businesses close by.-Promoting tourism in the area.-Preservation of Local and National History-Rehabilitation is cheaper than building a new bridge-Massive Community Support-Massive Local Business Support-Town Boards both passed Resolutions in Support-Massive Support from both Clinton and Essex County Residents-Support from Historical Societies all across upstate NY-Well Known by Civil Engineers all across the Country
https://keesevillehistoricbridges.com/grants/
-Three Non-Profit Organizations support us.-The Community wants to fund raise to help you.-The Towns want to offer funds to support the County
Ten years of no action is long enough. Please help us.
Other bridges in the area:-Do not have 2300+ signature petition-Are not Nationally Historic Bridges-Are not Civil Engineering Landmarks-Do not have the Annual Average Daily Traffic Count we do-Features of other bridges include farms / forests -Are not the LAST remaining bridge of their type.
This bridge was a priority in 2008. It was part of Essex County’s Bridge Management plan. It should still be today.
Our bridges are unique by themselves, BUT more importantly they are unique as a group of historic bridges. They tell a story of the experimental / developmental period in civil engineering.
Please do not continue to ignore Keeseville’s Heritage. For more info, please visit our website:
Multiple Engineers have confirmed that this bridge can be rehabilitated.
https://www.keesevillehistoricbridges.com/
Please help us, and without delay.

Clarification on Upper Bridge Inspection

By matt | June 8, 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

Hi Everyone, Here is an update on the Bridge Inspection conversation that happened Yesterday. This is directly from Jim Dougan to clarify:

Hi All,
To provide some clarification of what was discussed when Supervisor Barber visited with some of my staff yesterday. The Old Iron Bridge (AKA as Mill Hill Bridge, or River Street Bridge, or Upper Bridge), although currently closed, is still on the list of bridges inspected as part of NYSDOT’s bridge inspection program. The NYSDOT bridge inspection program has all bridges owned by municipalities inspected on a Biennial (every two years) basis, unless the bridge has a current flag which would have the inspection take place annually. In the case of closed bridges, the inspection schedule may vary from the biennial or annual schedule, but generally will not be more than 3 years in between inspections. The staff that met with Supervisor Barber yesterday were discussing the NYSDOT bridge inspection program and explained to Supervisor Barber though they could not tell him the exact date an inspection would take place, they were sure it was still on NYSDOT’s bridge inspection list. The old Iron Bridge is scheduled for a full inspection in 2022 as part of the NYSDOT bridge inspection program.
I hope this provides a little clarification to all interested parties.
Thank you,
Jim

Sun Community News Article

By matt | June 6, 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

https://suncommunitynews.com/news/89542/barber-asks-fellow-supervisors-to-save-historic-bridge/

Thank you to the Sun Community News & Printing for writing an article our our Historic Bridges in Keeseville. A lot has happened since the meeting in Essex County, and we thought we would add some supplemental information to this article. Thank you to Clayton Barber for fighting the good fight!-There ARE two remaining bridges built by Murray, Dougan and Company. The other bridge in Point Pleasant PA is a completely different type of bridge. The Byram Road Bridge is a single span pony pratt truss bridge that crosses a small brook. See it here: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=pennsylvania/pointpleasant/

Our bridge is a double span metal pratt truss bridge that is a ‘through truss’ design. It’s portal, design elements, and the over head beams making it a ‘through truss’ make this the last remaining ‘through truss’ type in the world built by this company. See it here: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=newyork/keesevilleupper/

-Murray, Dougal and Company built railroad cars. Then they made custom bridges in factories. This factory eventually burned down. The rail company was saved, but the bridge making business never resumed. This makes these bridges historical, and very rare.-The Iron from this bridge was provided by the Phoenix Iron and Steel Mill in Phoenixville PA. This company made 1200 civil war cannons. After the war they melted these cannons down and used the iron to make bridges. It is very likely that this bridge contains iron from repurposed civil war cannons, but it is difficult to prove.

In Regards to Essex County-

All County Representatives have been invited multiple times for a walking tour over the last year. A few have responded, but most have not. There is one supervisor (whom I have a lot of respect for) that didn’t know where the bridges were in April 2007, and he said again in April 2021 that he does not know the location of this bridge. (It’s in the meeting minutes) I’ll happily show these supervisors the bridge, and tell them all about our story.

– DPW Head Jim Dougan was aware that Clayton Barber was going to speak at this meeting. We were caught off guard by the ‘bridge presentation’. It was purely an attempt to stall our efforts. Some of the bridges on this presentation were quite comical when compared to our bridge. This presentation was only shown so that we didn’t ask DPW to use their funding to fix our bridge. Instead we try to look for grants.-We have spoke with not only Engineers from VS Engineers, but Wrought Iron Bridge Works, Bach Steel, other independent civil engineers across the county including a former head of the NYS Thruway Authority who restored over 900 bridges, including historic bridges. They all say that this bridge can be lifted to a load capacity of 12-15 tons and reopened.

In regards to safety, we have shown the county officials multiple times from sources inside NYS and outside NYS that these bridges are termed “Functionally Obsolete”. This means that these bridges are still safe, can be maintained for traffic, but they are historical bridges that do not meet the standards of ‘new bridges’ that can hold 40 tons. Our bridges do not sit on major highways, but are vital connector routes in our town because of the ausable river, so the 40 ton weight load is not necessary.-Current estimates for repairing the Upper Bridge is $1-1.65 Million when using Wrought Iron Bridge Works. They will save an estimated 500K by removing the bridge and restoring it in a warehouse, avoiding environmental costs by not painting it over the river.

In Regards to Clinton County-They recently inspected the Swing Bridge.

It hadn’t been inspected since 2014. Inspection showed that it had lost even more paint since 2014, and that minor repairs were needed. A 2018 RPI report says that if the bridge is not painted between 5-10 years that it will lead to the bridge being unusable. Here is the quote. “While much of the bridge exhibits rust to a certain extent, at this time the rust appears to be superficial (i.e., the rusting members do notappear to have significant section loss). Left unchecked, the rusting will continue until the bridge is nolonger useable.” We need this bridge painted, and the repairs to the wingwalls, etc need to be made and maintained. Here is a link to the RPI study: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Im5rsFzc9y_iASxW0IaLqKsuTIS0ngZ8/view?usp=sharing

-Clinton County has applied for a historical structure report for the Old State Road Bridge. Thank you Clinton County for this.-In Regards to Funding, I’ve emailed the Board of Supervisors and the Clinton County Legislature grant funding both at the state and federal levels that could fund our project. We were told by a county official in Clinton County that we could not use a non-profit foundation to raise funds and give to the county. I contacted our state representatives, and they did not find any reason why this couldn’t be done. There was no law in place saying a non profit can’t donate to a County. I sought clarification from that Clinton County Representative and received no answer. I wanted more info so we could double check, and try to help the county cover the remaining 20% of the cost. The towns are also willing to help offset the county costs.-

There is a small group in Essex County and a small group in Clinton County that are preventing us from restoring our bridge. We want to work with them, not against them. The messaging in this article is confusing from Clinton County.Quote:“At this time Clinton County has no plans to rehabilitate the Clinton County-owned bridges. We continue to seek funding opportunities that may facilitate such a project.”

We have provided the funding opportunities, but they are quite honest that they have no plans to do anything with the bridges. We have been asking since July 2020 for help. I’ve been asking them to come up with a plan. Our petition is approaching 2350 signatures.

How much info do we need to provide in order for our officials to realize just how much these bridges are worth? They are not just old bridges, they are not just historical bridges, they are not just civil engineering landmarks, they are truly each one of a kind bridges in the world. Instead of finding ways to say we can’t do this… Let’s work TOGETHER to find a solution. We ask our community and supporters to please keep sending letters. They need to hear from you why these bridges are important.For more details check our website for more information. https://www.keesevillehistoricbridges.com