Safety of Lancaster Bridges

[speakup]

What exactly is the status of the safety of the Lancaster Pavement Road and Cemetery Road Bridges and the time table for their repairs and/or replacements depends on where the information is coming from.

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[tomac]

Originally Posted by speakup

What exactly is the status of the safety of the Lancaster Pavement Road and Cemetery Road Bridges and the time table for their repairs and/or replacements depends on where the information is coming from.

More...

This is a crock of bovine excrement. According to the engineers on the television news reports, these bridges all started to fall apart this past year.
Sorry, but they were flagged as being dangerous while I was still working and before. I remember hearing about the Cemetery Road bridge losing major chunks on concrete at least ten years ago. Dan Rider's solution was to string some netting underneath the bridge to catch the pieces of concrete so they wouldn't hit any cars. This was in around 2001. Before him, Dave Commerford ignored the problem that was just starting to become apparent.
By waiting and waiting, they've managed to throw the ball into another court. Because the state can't afford a gallon of gas and a match, much less rebuilding a major bridge, it's somehow not the county's fault that the bridge won't get fixed.
Once upon a time, the staff of the Highway Division would have redesigned the bridge and gone ahead and built it at minimal expense; now everything has to be done through private consultation (who do NOT work cheaply) and who take years to get a project drawn up, and are usually so rediculously overdesigned as to be unusable. This is because they are paid a fee based on a percentage of the final cost of the project. Picture needing a new set of steps on your back porch. By having these guys design your project they'll set up a set of plans that will cost more than the value of the rest of your house and your car thrown in for good measure. They do this because thay can and because most of the engineers downtown originally came from these same consultants.
I really had to laugh however, when that well-known bridge engineer Sam Hoyt came out and said that maybe we shouldn't be building any new roads or bridges anymore; instead we should be doing band-aid repair work to these structures. I don't think that he'll hold himself responsible when a heavy vehicle like a school bus or a fire truck causes the bridge to collapse when it tries to cross over.
I really love this area; you people didn't want an active Civil Service because you thought we were all tax eaters. Well this is the result.
Be careful of what you wish for; you might get it.
God Save Erie County!

[Linda_D]

Originally Posted by tomac

This is a crock of bovine excrement. According to the engineers on the television news reports, these bridges all started to fall apart this past year.
Sorry, but they were flagged as being dangerous while I was still working and before. I remember hearing about the Cemetery Road bridge losing major chunks on concrete at least ten years ago. Dan Rider's solution was to string some netting underneath the bridge to catch the pieces of concrete so they wouldn't hit any cars. This was in around 2001. Before him, Dave Commerford ignored the problem that was just starting to become apparent.
By waiting and waiting, they've managed to throw the ball into another court. Because the state can't afford a gallon of gas and a match, much less rebuilding a major bridge, it's somehow not the county's fault that the bridge won't get fixed.
Once upon a time, the staff of the Highway Division would have redesigned the bridge and gone ahead and built it at minimal expense; now everything has to be done through private consultation (who do NOT work cheaply) and who take years to get a project drawn up, and are usually so rediculously overdesigned as to be unusable. This is because they are paid a fee based on a percentage of the final cost of the project. Picture needing a new set of steps on your back porch. By having these guys design your project they'll set up a set of plans that will cost more than the value of the rest of your house and your car thrown in for good measure. They do this because thay can and because most of the engineers downtown originally came from these same consultants.
I really had to laugh however, when that well-known bridge engineer Sam Hoyt came out and said that maybe we shouldn't be building any new roads or bridges anymore; instead we should be doing band-aid repair work to these structures. I don't think that he'll hold himself responsible when a heavy vehicle like a school bus or a fire truck causes the bridge to collapse when it tries to cross over.
I really love this area; you people didn't want an active Civil Service because you thought we were all tax eaters. Well this is the result.
Be careful of what you wish for; you might get it.
God Save Erie County!

This is exactly why I will never live in Erie County again. Erie County is getting to be more and more like the City of Buffalo (where I once lived and won't live again). Both governments ignore their "business" (ie, providing services to residents) in order to provide jobs/business for the politically connected.

How many decades has the bridge down in Eden Valley been out??? That came to mind because I drove from Hamburg to Gowanda via Jennings Road this afternoon. I'm most familiar with the county roads in areas like Collins, North Collins, and Eden, and they are simply dreadful -- especially when compared to the county roads in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties, which are larger in size than Erie County but have tiny populations (about 80,000 and 150,000 respectively).

[cheekman]

..

Originally Posted by Linda_D

This is exactly why I will never live in Erie County again. Erie County is getting to be more and more like the City of Buffalo (where I once lived and won't live again). Both governments ignore their "business" (ie, providing services to residents) in order to provide jobs/business

How many decades has the bridge down in Eden Valley been out??? That came to mind because I drove from Hamburg to Gowanda via Jennings Road this afternoon. I'm most familiar with the county roads in areas like Collins, North Collins, and Eden, and they are simply dreadful -- especially when compared to the county roads in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties, which are larger in size than Erie County but have tiny populations (about 80,000 and 150,000 respectively).

how about the bridge in akron on the north side of the park how many years has that been closed before the county started working on it. a joke!!! it's not only the county and city that have cut services how about all the towns that have raised taxes and cut your services. depew, cheektowaga, amherst the list goes on and on. But not for for the politically connected..."Once upon a time, the staff of the Highway Division would have redesigned the bridge and gone ahead and built it at minimal expense; now everything has to be done through private consultation'' why because of the politicial kickbacks. let the people that were hired to do the job do it and stop wasting tax payers money.

[shortstuff]

Originally Posted by cheekman

..

how about the bridge in akron on the north side of the park how many years has that been closed before the county started working on it. a joke!!! it's not only the county and city that have cut services how about all the towns that have raised taxes and cut your services. depew, cheektowaga, amherst the list goes on and on. But not for for the politically connected..."Once upon a time, the staff of the Highway Division would have redesigned the bridge and gone ahead and built it at minimal expense; now everything has to be done through private consultation'' why because of the politicial kickbacks. let the people that were hired to do the job do it and stop wasting tax payers money.

We have very very poor infrastructure. I thought some of this stimulus money was to address these areas in the country. NYS is the worse by far I think.

[tomac]

Originally Posted by cheekman

..
depew, cheektowaga, amherst the list goes on and on. But not for for the politically connected...

Just a minor nitpick. Depew is a village in the towns of Cheektowaga and Lancaster. It's not a town of its own.
That being said and on a side note, looks like the village of East Aurora might merge back into the town of Aurora. Hopefully, Orchard Park, Hamburg and Williamsville won't be far behind.

[shortstuff]

Originally Posted by tomac

Just a minor nitpick. Depew is a village in the towns of Cheektowaga and Lancaster. It's not a town of its own.
That being said and on a side note, looks like the village of East Aurora might merge back into the town of Aurora. Hopefully, Orchard Park, Hamburg and Williamsville won't be far behind.

will merge with the Town of Lancaster. Too many villages, towns, so on and so on. I mean when you talk about downsizing, I think the first place is to see if it is more practical to merge the villages again. The village has their own governing, the town has their own governing and put the two together you have 12 politicians looking over what I think Lancaster on a whole is like 53 thousand people? Merge, and have 5 people. Do we need a Town Supervisor and a Mayor? No.

[tomac]

Originally Posted by shortstuff

will merge with the Town of Lancaster. Too many villages, towns, so on and so on. I mean when you talk about downsizing, I think the first place is to see if it is more practical to merge the villages again. The village has their own governing, the town has their own governing and put the two together you have 12 politicians looking over what I think Lancaster on a whole is like 53 thousand people? Merge, and have 5 people. Do we need a Town Supervisor and a Mayor? No.

I read in yesterday's Snooze that Williamsville's mayor is going to allow the citizens to discuss merging with the town; something that the Village Board is dead-set against.
Sounds like "yeah we have a $50,000 deficit so let's go out and fire a snow plow driver and two librarians - just NOT the Village Board!!"
Throw the bums out!

[shortstuff]

Originally Posted by tomac

I read in yesterday's Snooze that Williamsville's mayor is going to allow the citizens to discuss merging with the town; something that the Village Board is dead-set against.
Sounds like "yeah we have a $50,000 deficit so let's go out and fire a snow plow driver and two librarians - just NOT the Village Board!!"
Throw the bums out!

But those days are numbered. I predict within 5 years, all villages will have merged with the towns. What was Giambra talking about back awhile go, Regionalization? Is that what it means, to merge? Do it also mean merging of other services?