A group of people gathered on the Vermont statehouse steps on Nov. 17 to demand quicker action on setting up a temporary ferry to take the place of the Lake Champlain Bridge, which was closed on Oct. 16 because of cracks in its piers, the Burlington Free Press reported.
“I’m very frustrated at the pace this is going,” Dana Franklin told the Burlington Free Press. Franklin and his wife, Lorraine, own the West Addison General Store down the road from the bridge. “If we don’t have ferry service by Dec. 31, our store alone will probably lose a quarter-million in gross revenue. For a small business, that is huge.”
The bridge across Lake Champlain from Addison to Crown Point, N.Y., was used by about 3,400 vehicles a day. The 80-year-old bridge was closed to traffic on Oct. 16 after cracks were found in its concrete piers.
“The severity of the deterioration at water level and the wide cracks reported below the water level in all the piers . . . reinforce our recommendation to close the bridge,” HNTB, the New York State Department of Transportation’s design consultant for the bridge, said in a safety assessment last week.
A replacement bridge would probably cost $67 million, according to HNTB, but rehabilitating the old bridge to significantly add to its service life would cost more, take longer to execute and yield less useful life than a new bridge.
One of the commuters in the group of about 15 said her morning trip to work has ballooned from 33 minutes to two hours.
A spokesman for the Vermont Agency of Transportation told the rally that work on the docks needed for a new ferry should begin late this week or early next week.
The frustrated crowd said they hoped the Vermont agency would take a bigger role in monitoring the health of the new bridge. The existing Lake Champlain Bridge is co-owned by Vermont and New York, but New York is in charge of its maintenance.
