Dryden bridge project will ‘move forward’ after much debate

Dryden Rail Trail Task Force, with aid from town of Dryden officials and Erdman Anthony of Rochester, is in the process of developing a bridge that will connect two sides of the Rail Trail and hover over Route 13 near the hamlet of Varna.

However, the bridge project has fueled considerable opposition, with some going to great lengths to try and “kill the project,” said Bob Beck, Rail Trail Task Force chair.

Despite recurring opposition to the project, Beck iterated that construction of the bridge will “move forward, and the plan [for it] is progressing.”

According to Beck, the design of the bridge will not be finalized until the winter, but the preliminary plan is for the bridge to be a prefabricated pedestrian steel truss-structure that is about 100 feet long and 10 feet wide between the railings and will be 16.5 feet above the road’s surface.

This bridge would link a 10-foot-wide stone dust trail along a former railroad bed between Monkey Run Road and Hallwoods Road.

In June, Deputy Town Supervisor Dan Lamb said the Dryden Town Board passed a resolution that authorized the New York State Department of Transportation “to initiate land acquisition for the bridge project.”

Those who opposed the bridge project quickly provided an alternative plan and other possible plans for a bridge. This came in the form of a petition, which Lamb said had close to 500 signatures, as it made attempts to reverse the current bridge project plan.

With the hopes of turning the petition into a permissive referendum, town and Rail Trail officials proved that the petition was “illegitimate,” Lamb said.

“We didn’t follow through with a referendum,” Lamb said, adding the opposition’s alternative plans were not “properly researched. Therefore, it was invalid.”

Lamb added that the petition ensured the bridge had to be constructed through general municipal law, but Lamb and town officials said the project comes through town law.

“You can hold a referendum through specific spending decisions by the town, but this [bridge project] wasn’t one,” Lamb said.

Despite the opposition’s plan being thwarted by town law, it still led to “misinformation” being spread, Beck said. Many town residents were under the impression that the permissive referendum on the bridge project was still alive, which would have led it to appear on this year’s general election ballot for a vote.

Lamb noted that the referendum was dismissed this past summer, adding that town officials “never doubted that the bridge project would go forward.”

“We have over $2 million in funding for this project,” he added. “We’ve set a pretty consistent signal that this project is going forward.”

As of right now, the estimated cost of the bridge project is $2.9 million. Beck noted it could be less.

In terms of funding, the project has received $1.5 million from the state Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Program; $500,000 in multimodule funds from the State Legislature; $50,000 from a Tompkins County tourism program; $15,000 from the Triad Foundation, Inc.; and $10,000 from Cornell University. Beck added that more grant requests are currently in the works.

Beck said the “misinformation” didn’t cause delays to the bridge project but is “disruptive to operations and chaos for any municipality.”

“Luckily, this attempt didn’t qualify for a permissive referendum,” Beck added.

Beck mentioned the re-election of Town Supervisor Jason Leifer, along with Lamb and fellow Town Board member Leonard Vargas-Mendez, was “important for the continuation of not only the bridge project, but the Rail Trail as a whole.”

“The Town Board has been entirely supportive of our Rail Trail project, including the bridge,” Beck added.

Once the development and design process is complete, Erdman Anthony will send out bids to companies for the construction of the bridge, Beck said. He added that the goal is to construct the bridge between the summer and fall of next year.

Patrons in the past have expressed concern to Beck and Rail Trail and town officials about the bridge potentially being “too narrow to cross,” Beck added. Beck, however, said the bridge is “wide enough and plenty strong” for even maintenance and emergency vehicles to cross on.

“There will be a fence on each side of the trail to safely protect trail users,” Beck said. “This bridge will be appreciated for generations to come. It’s a safe, direct connection this Rail Trail needs. It’s going to be increasingly used every year from every community.”

The Dryden Rail Trail is a 14-mile multiuse trail. When completed, it will link Dryden to Ithaca and the rest of the county through a connection to East Ithaca Recreation Way on Game Farm Road.

The Rail Trail as a whole goes through the villages of Dryden and Freeville, along with the hamlets of Varna and Etna. The trail passes through a variety of residential, rural and conservation land districts.

Dryden Dispatch appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.