Thousands of citizens head over bridges every day which carry traffic across the Buffalo River and Cazenovia Creek in and out of South Buffalo. The city is pushing to replace the two bridges, which they say are old and worn out. For those drivers, it's a bouncing curving path over pavement which saw better days a long time ago.
There is a replacement plan which involves building the new bridges next to the current spans so that access will continue in and out of South Buffalo until completion.
It's described as somewhat similar to what was done when the ramp connections between the Niagara Section of the Thruway and the Youngmann Highway were replaced, built new as the old ramps continued in use until their replacements were finished.
Public Works Commissioner Steven Stepniak says the city is trying to secure state money for the project.
"We're fighting for the project for our TIP list, which would be a state transportation list. It's an $18 million project. We're expecting it to be on the 2016 through 2018 TIP list. There's been a few delays in the project based on funding availability from the state," said Stepniak.
Stepniak said there probably won't be any repairs between now and completion of the new crossing.
"At this point we feel pretty comfortable with making it through. But, we do monitor. There are monitor agencies that actually go through the state. We've been working with the state on that. We're not anticipating much expenditure in that bridge until the replacement begins," said Stepniak.
Stepniak said if everything falls into place and the dollars show up from Albany, actual construction would take place in 2016 and 2017.
