A couple of bad news articles (both from the Ithaca Journal) regarding Tompkins County:
The East Clinton Street bridge, which carries Route 96B over Six Mile Creek, is a high-traffic bridge on the priority list to be repaired. Built in 1942, the steel bridge is rated a 3.8 on the state's 1-to-7 rating scale. The federal designation of the bridge is "structurally deficient," the worst federal rating possible. (Buy this photo)
Tompkins County bridges rank lowest in Southern Tier
Situation neither dangerous nor dire, officials say
By Tim Ashmore •
tashmore@gannett.com • Staff Writer • May 9, 2009
Bridges in Tompkins County scored lower in the state rating system than in the any other county in the region, according to a database from New York Department of Transportation ratings.
The low ratings may be concerning, but it doesn't mean area bridges are in dire need of repair, Tompkins officials said.
"Just because a bridge is ranked as deficient doesn't meant that it's dangerous or about to fall," said Fernando de Aragon, director of the Ithaca-Tompkins Transportation Council. "When bridges are a danger they get closed or they get fixed. In my time here, 11 years, we've had a couple of occasions where we've taken money from other projects to fix a bridge that was getting dangerous."
Two Tompkins bridges rank in the 10 worst-rated bridges in the nine-county region comprising the Southern Tier, which include Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga and Tompkins counties.
Of 194 bridges throughout Tompkins, nearly 11 percent scored lower than a four on the state's seven-point inspection scale. One bridge, a span that crosses Fall Creek on Groton City Road, was ranked lower than a three.
More than 40 percent of Tompkins' bridges have a negative rating, de Aragon said. Four of those low-rated bridges have high-volume traffic, and each are scheduled for repair in the near future.
Those bridges are:
* The steel bridge near the Ithaca Police Department on E. Clinton Street over Six Mile Creek Route 96B;
* A Route 13 bridge that crosses Fall Creek in the Town of Dryden near the Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport;
* A Route 13 bridge that crosses Carter Creek near the Schuyler County line, in the town of Newfield;
* A bridge on Etna Road that crosses a minor stream.
The Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council monitors area bridges so recommendations can be made to the state for funding. When it comes to priorities, it becomes something of a funding shell game.
Several years ago when the Stewart Avenue bridge over Fall Creek near Ithaca Falls bordered on dangerous, money was taken from a low-priority project to fund repairs.
"At no time was anybody in danger," de Aragon said. "The system worked. That's a very critical bridge, so we found the money."
Region-wide, officials report a growing number of bridges reaching the end of their useful lives. Much of the aging infrastructure was built either in the 1930s or in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on typical 50-year bridge life, many need upgrades or replacement.
"The expected useful life (of bridges) are all coming due at the same time, and that's when we start prioritizing," said Michelle Clark, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation in Region 3.
When President Dwight Eisenhower invested millions into the national infrastructure, it was primarily to establish the interstate system, a program that largely excludes Ithaca and Tompkins. Route 13 is the only highway in Tompkins that's part of the national highway system. Remaining state roads like routes 96, 89 and 79 are considered secondary routes, which were built primarily in the 1930s, Clark said.
In Ithaca, student and tourism traffic are high year round, but more damaging to bridges than regular traffic is the volume of trucks, which nearly always are making local stops, de Aragon said.
"Something like 97 percent of the trucks were here for a reason," he said, talking specifically about road and bridge damage as opposed to noise and quality of life issues. "They were here to deliver something or pick up something locally. The idea we have a lot of pass-through traffic doesn't carry a lot a lot of water.
"This is how we, meaning as a nation, have structured our transportation system. We also happen to have a lot of state roads that cut through our county and Ithaca is at the crossroads of just about all of them, and that creates a situation where a lot of traffic that cuts through the city. But the state roads are made to handle the trucks."
A repeated theme in interviews with state and local officials was that there isn't enough money to fix all the bridges that need attention. That means the state and the county need to prioritize bridges based on cost-benefit analyses that include traffic volume, and total costs.
"The state's good about applying the money," de Aragon said. "They're not going to use small urban money for Route 13 if they can use National Highway Assistance money. You leave the other money for other projects."
To keep bridges open, money can be shifted, or large-scale replacements are avoided by performing smaller scale maintenance.
"Instead of going with big capital projects that will replace the bridge," said John Lampman, a county highway engineer, "what we're doing is trying to use our bridge crew in-house as well as try to do the repairs that we need to do on an as-they-arise basis as well as doing preventative maintenance (such as) washing the bridges."
Continental to end airline flights from Ithaca to Newark
By Tim Ashmore •
tashmore@gannett.com • Staff Writer • May 9, 2009
Continental Airlines plans to end its flights between the Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport and Newark, N.J. effective June 11, though local airport and elected officials say they will fight the move.
Ithaca-Tompkins airport manager Bob Nicholas called Continental's decision, "shocking."
"Despite encouraging growth and some really positive passenger numbers over the past two months, general air traffic congestion in Newark has been causing some major headaches for Continental," Nicholas said. "While I understand the need to try to ease this congestion by thinning out the number of operations in Newark, we feel there are ways to achieve their objective while preserving air service to Ithaca."
Continental began serving Ithaca with Continental Connection carrier Commute Air flights last October. Revenue from those flights was the lone bright spot for Tompkins County in a March economic activity report by Ithaca College economics professor Elia Kacapyr.
"The first thing that comes to mind is the enthusiasm we have with the (New York) Jets (NFL football team) coming to Cortland" for training camp this summer and the tourism associated with that, Kacapyr said, adding that Continental may have overlooked that point.
County Administrator Joe Mareane pointed out recently that strong enplanement numbers in an area such as Ithaca typically indicate business activity.
Flight capacity grew from 66 percent for four daily flights in March to 72 percent in April.
Ithaca is the only airport in the Ithaca, Elmira and Binghamton region with air service to metropolitan New York.
"I think we've been drawing people up from Elmira and Binghamton for Newark service, not because they want to go to Newark, but because of the international ... and domestic connections from the Continental network," Nicholas said.
Despite the recent announcement, Nicholas and New York's federal senators, Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said they will continue fighting to keep the flights.
"The first thing I did was to call people in Continental I know to talk to them about it," Nicholas said. "I'm not sure that they have looked at this market as closely as they should have ..."
Chairman of the Tompkins County Air Service Board Larry Baum noted that many travelers to Newark use the international service from Newark, which makes the airfares high-yield tickets for Continental.
Congestion problems in Newark are on the brink of unbearable, observers said. Nicholas said he recently flew out of there, and that his flight boarded on-time but didn't take off for an hour. His plane was 41st in line to take off.
The Ithaca airport still connects to international hubs in Philadelphia and Detroit. It also has four flights to LaGuardia in New York City, which connects almost entirely to domestic flights.
Here's a TV vid link about Continental ceasing service:
http://news10now.com/content/top_sto...e/Default.aspx
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