ITHACA, N.Y. — The City of Ithaca has been awarded more than $1 million to replace the North Aurora Street bridge over Cascadilla Creek.
The city’s department of public works received the funding from BRIDGE NY, a program of the New York State Department of Transportation. The program emphasizes projects that address poor structural conditions, mitigate weight restriction or long detours, facilitate economic development or increase competitiveness, and/or reduce the risk of flooding.
In July, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that $200 million was available for local governments over the next two years to rehabilitate and replace bridges and culverts.
The city was selected for the $1.178 million award through a competitive scoring process, the city said in a news release.
In a news statement released Sunday, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick said “The City will bring in over a million dollars to keep up the aggressive repair and replacement schedule for our many bridges. We’re thankful to New York State and I’m thankful to our City staff who have worked tirelessly to make these long overdue investments in our infrastructure.”
The existing North Aurora Street bridge over Cascadilla Creek will be replaced as part of the project to eliminate all structural deficiencies and the current 15-ton load posting. The project also proposes to remove the bridge from the Federal Highway Administration’s “Scour Critical Bridge” list, the city said.
The project schedule calls for engineering and design in 2017 and 2018 and construction in 2019.
“The City’s Engineering Office has over twenty years of success in securing Federal and State funds to rehabilitate and to rebuild approximately thirty bridges in our inventory. Our Bridge Systems Engineer, Addisu Gebre, has taken another step forward with the BRIDGE NY award,” Tim Logue, director of engineering, said in a news release.
Dryden was also recently awarded funding through BRIDGE NY to repair and replace bridges located at Freese Road over Fall Creek and South George Road over Virgil Creek.