TOWN OF WATSON, New York (WWNY) – A Lewis County official says changing weather patterns have made fixing aging infrastructure even more important. That’s why the county is grateful for more than $7 million in state funding to repair bridges and culverts.
“We have four projects that were awarded this year and were greatly appreciative of that,” said Tim Hunt, Lewis County highway superintendent.
To help decide which bridges need the work more urgently, there is a process that the county follows.
“We have a very detailed list of all the bridges in Lewis County and we have them all ranked on where they’re at in their deterioration,” said Hunt.
He says there are two reasons it’s important to the county to get this work done.
“One is the aging of the infrastructure and it started to fall apart and be replaced and then the other is that our weather patterns have changed and so we need to make the infrastructure more resilient,” said Hunt.
“According to a report from the state comptrollers office, 16.8% of the bridges in Lewis County are rated in poor condition. One in the town of Watson will be getting a little more than a million dollars from the state’s BRIDGE NY program.
“It’s huge because it doesn’t come straight out of the residents of the town of Watson. It would be a huge burden otherwise,” said Stephen Skiff, Watson’s town highway superintendent.
Last year, another bridge in the town of Watson got BRIDGE NY funding for repairs. But, just because the funding is there doesn’t mean the work gets completed right away.
“It’s usually between, like, a year and a half to two years before you go to the construction phase,” said Skiff.
The other 3 bridges that were awarded funding are in the towns of Greig and Harrisburg.
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