At the outset of this year's road work season, the City of Jamestown could boast that it would benefit from three major construction projects courtesy of the New York State Department of Transportation. This level of commitment from the state would have made it a good year, said Jeff Lehman, director of the city's Department of Public Works.
But it is not to be, at least for the 2010 season.
According to recent announcements from the DOT, while the Washington Street Bridge project makes strides to reach its date of completion, two other projects - repairs to the surfaces of Second and Washington streets - will be shelved until next year.
Lehman said this is frustrating since the city plans its own construction schedule around the state's "project lists" which are released in the late spring through the regional offices of the DOT. Currently, city crews from the DPW are proceeding with their mill and overlay project on the downtown section of East Second Street. This repaving effort extends to the intersection of East Second and Fourth streets, where the state DOT originally planned to pick up and continue the job to the Falconer village line at Tiffany Avenue.
The city component covers the length of four city blocks, while the proposed DOT contribution would have spanned almost two miles of East Second Street.
"It's disappointing on our end," said Lehman, who received the bad news Thursday from the Western New York office of the DOT. He added the city will be forced to continue its "band-aid approach" in the fall to the stretches of road that are postponed. This means the DPW will conduct another round of applying minor patches of asphalt to the most serious cracks and potholes.
In addition to the greater length of East Second Street, this summer was supposed to see a repaving of Washington Street, from downtown and stretching north to the intersection of Fluvanna Avenue.
Currently, these two major street repairs are grouped together under a new "In Development" DOT project, that will also include the entire section of Route 430 (Fluvanna Avenue) that resides within the city. Applications for contract bids are expected next spring, and construction is slated for completion in summer 2012.
Opening bids for construction during the 2010 season began just after the deadline for a state budget expired, when the DOT recommended current work crews hired by the state continue working "on good faith." All funding was severed for capital improvement projects statewide, though payments for existing construction contracts have been restored during Gov. Paterson's weekly budget extensions.
Lehman said projects have been shifted and delayed in the past, but this time around it is largely due to the late budget in Albany.
The ongoing Washington Street bridge project is part of a long-term DOT project designed to fix the overpass as well as the streets that feed into Route 60. This included reconstruction to parts of West Sixth and West Fifth that extended to Main Street, whose construction began in 2009.
The project description posted by the DOT says it will "re-pave various streets in the city that will be used as temporary detours during construction."
In addition it says "project enhancements" will include the installation of decorative lighting to improve the aesthetic quality of the area, as well as new signage, sidewalks, and renovation to the 300-foot section of the Riverwalk trail beneath the bridge.
Updated descriptions of state projects, organized by geographic location, are available on the DOT website at https://www.nysdot.gov/projects.
