by David Flint
Work started Monday on replacement of the Route 22 bridge over the Kinderhook Creek in Stephentown. Crews from the Bette & Cring Construction Group of Latham began construction of a detour highway section to take traffic around the site of the new bridge via a temporary bridge while the new bridge is being built.
Billy Hammersmith of Quality Construction in Berlin began hauling in the first of 500 truck loads of bank run and screened gravel for the detour. Hammersmith has stockpiled his materials a short distance up Route 22 at a lot adjacent to Neil Gardner’s self storage units.
Bette & Cring Project Superintendent Gene Hunt said the detour with the temporary bridge should be finished by mid-June. He expected the new replacement bridge would be completed by the beginning of November. The new bridge will be a bit wider than the existing one.
NYSDOT Project Engineer Craig Blake said at a Town Board meeting a year and a half ago that the bridge is 70 years old and shows it. It has rust, worn concrete decking, leaking joints and cracked supports. It is also far too narrow for today’s standards. The new bridge will be built in the same location with pre-cast concrete beams and will have two 12-foot lanes and shoulders over nine feet in width versus the present one-foot shoulders.