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Rain diminishing to a few showers by morning. Low 38F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..
Rain diminishing to a few showers by morning. Low 38F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
Sparse traffic crosses the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge in 2020. Christopher Lenney/Watertown Daily Times
Sparse traffic crosses the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge in 2020. Christopher Lenney/Watertown Daily Times
OGDENSBURG — The Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority is getting $3 million for construction and repairs to the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, according to Sen. Charles E. Schumer’s office.
OBPA Executive Director Steven J. Lawrence said there are several sections of the bridge on which the $3 million could be spent. The larger repair project that these funds will contribute to includes replacing the superstructure of the U.S. plate girder spans 1 to 8; Canadian desk truss spans 18 to 23; and the Canadian plate girder spans 24 to 32, plus cleaning and painting the Canadian plate girder spans 24 to 32, main cables and the suspender ropes. Mr. Lawrence said the total price tag for all of those sections would likely be over $100 million.
He expects OBPA officials in the next 30 to 60 days to “narrow that down … and see what our estimates are to do a portion of that.”
“What we’ll do is dependant on the funding we get along with this $3 million. We’ll pick out a section of that project and turn it into a subset,” he said. “We broke our capital plan out into sections.”
Mr. Lawrence added that there are no safety concerns for any section of the bridge. The proposed projects are all routine maintenance.
“The bridge is very safe. It’s a 60-year-old bridge and there are things coming close to the end of their useful life. As stewards of a public structure, we’re looking ahead to maintain it for the next 60 years … over the last 10 years, we’ve really upgraded a lot of things out there,” he said. “Very thankful to the senator, many thanks from the OBPA for the senator’s assistance in obtaining the funding.”
More than $4 billion in goods are shipped between the U.S. and Canada annually over the bridge, and over 800,000 vehicles cross the bridge annually, making it “essential to the economic vitality of the north country, New York, and America as a strategic point of trade,” according to the senator’s office.
The $3 million Sen. Schumer secured for the project as part of the bipartisan omnibus spending package for fiscal year 2022 will fund key construction to maintain the structural integrity of the bridge.
“The Ogdensburg International Bridge is one of Upstate New York’s most vital ports of entry, but its aging infrastructure puts north country businesses, our tourism industry, and billions in cross-border trade at stake. That is why I am so proud to be able to personally deliver $3 million to make critical upgrades to this vital link to Canada before repairs prove a bridge to far,” the senator said in a prepared statement. “This much-needed investment will keep visitors and commerce flowing into the north country, especially as we emerge from the pandemic and the border restrictions, make roads safer for everyone, create local jobs, bolster the economic recovery of the region, and ensure that these upkeeps will be nothing more than water under the bridge.”
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