Saturday, November 4, 2006

Bridge may be old, but it's not feeble
Inspection finds piers are structurally sound


By Michael Valkys
Poughkeepsie Journal

Divers are inspecting massive piers beneath the Hudson River that support the long-closed Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge.

What has been found so far appears to be good news for the effort to reopen the span as a pedestrian walkway.

"We've been looking at the structural integrity of the underwater piers," said Fred Schaeffer, head of Walkway Over the Hudson, which is working to make the bridge accessible to the public. "The bridge is in really great shape. ... There's no reason in the world this bridge can't be renovated into a pedestrian walkway."

Some have questioned whether the bridge is worth saving, wondering if it is structurally sound. Walkway officials said inspection results thus far prove the span can be saved.

Engineers examine

Ron Samuelson, a Walkway board member and project manager for the ongoing bridge study, said engineers who have examined the bridge over the years, and the most recent inspections, should quell any skepticism.

"We're extremely confident the bridge can support the kind of weight load" and use that would come with opening it to the public, Samuelson said.

Divers started work Monday and are expected to finish inspections by the middle of next week.

Walkway hired Bergmann Associates of Albany to complete a comprehensive study and master plan for the bridge between the City of Poughkeepsie and Highland. The study's first phase, which Schaeffer said will cost $40,000, includes inspecting the underwater piers for the first time in 27 years.

The actual inspection work is being handled by McLaren Engineering Group.

Schaeffer said the piers, most of them 60 feet by 100 feet, are filled with concrete and rock, surrounded by oak.

"They are massive structures," Schaeffer said of the piers, which he likened in size to 12-story buildings.

Schaeffer said Walkway wanted to get the underwater inspections done before the onset of winter. The second phase of the inspection, which will examine the part of the bridge above the river, should begin before the end of the year.

The bridge, which dates to the 19th century, has been closed since a 1974 fire.

Grants aid effort

Efforts to open the bridge to pedestrians and cyclists have been ongoing since the 1990s, but intensified in recent years when Walkway installed new leaders. The group was recently awarded $874,000 in federal money, and also expects to use other grants and private donations in its renovation effort.

Cost estimates to reopen the bridge have run between $10 million and $15 million. Previous estimates to remove the bridge altogether ran as high as $40 million.

The 212-foot high railroad bridge was used by trains moving goods around the country. It also carried trains that transported troops during World War II.

Walkway officials and others hope it will someday become part of a larger rail trail that will allow cyclists and hikers to travel from Hopewell Junction to Poughkeepsie, and eventually across the Hudson to New Paltz in Ulster County.

Walkway wants the bridge to be open by September 2009, in time for the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage on the river.

"That's what we're shooting for," Samuelson said.