Fairport lift bridge to close for 13 to 15 months

The Fairport lift bridge will close for 13 to 15 months beginning in summer 2019, the state announced Thursday.

The New York state Department of Transportation made the announcement during an informational meeting at Fairport High School.

The historic lift bridge is anticipated to close the week of July 8, 2019, and open again in August 2020. Bidding for the $8.93 million project, which includes repairs to a Spencerport lift bridge, will open this October.

At the meeting, which saw upward of 70 community members in attendance, NYSDOT Regional Design Engineer Frank Billittier said that the goal is to have a structure that can carry legal loads for many years into the future, and that will minimize any future closures in the village while maintaining the bridge's historical appearance.

The bridge, built in 1914, was rehabilitated in 1986 and closed temporarily in 2006 and 2013.

Billittier said that while the bridge is closed, through traffic will be detoured using Ayrault, Turk Hill and Whitney roads.

Local traffic will likely use Parker Street, though it will not be marked as a detour. Still, Parker Street residents suggested the traffic increase will be unmanageable.

Although Billittier said that the project is being done on a condensed timeline, 13 to 15 months compared to the typical 18 to 21 months that similar projects have required in the past, community members were quick to raise concern about the impact on the village.

"My main concern is just making sure that traffic flows as easily as possible. We know that there’s going to be a disruption. We just want to make sure that the traffic and pedestrians are circulating throughout the village as best they can," said Village Trustee Tim Slisz. "One of the suggestions is putting some kind of a traffic signal at the end of Parker Street onto East Church Street because that will be heavily traveled."

Slisz said that prior to the bridge's closure, arrangements will have to be made to ensure that emergency services are not impacted.

"The fire chief did say that if there’s a train and it happens to be stopped on Main Street, if the Parker Street bridge isn’t at the weight capacity we need for a fire engine, then if there's an emergency on Lift Bridge Lane East, we have a problem," said Slisz. "We might have to house a firetruck at one of our facilities on Lift Bridge Lane, so we’re looking at some alternative issues that may need to be addressed."

The greatest concern expressed during the meeting involved pedestrians.

Time after time, local business owners spoke up with two primary requests for the NYSDOT: Adjust the timeline of the project, and put in a temporary pedestrian bridge during its closure.

"A pedestrian lane is super-critical. We have loads of parking, it's the ability of our visitors and customers to get across the water that's an issue," said Scott Winner, executive director of the Fairport Perinton Partnership for a Better Community. "Our tourism and visitor industry is very important to our local economy. We need guests to be able to walk across the canal."

Lisa Kime, an owner of Main Street Mercantile, added that a temporary pedestrian bridge would be an ideal fix.

"Thirteen to 15 months is a long time. If they were closing it for four months, that would still be a long time. This is impacting a summer, it's impacting a Christmas season, and it's not just one or two stores, it's an entire village," said Kime. "There's the Parker Street bridge, but a lot of people don't know about that bridge and it's only one lane so it will get backed up if they do. There are a lot of concerns."

Although that was echoed by several others in attendance at the meeting, Billittier offered little indication that a temporary bridge was even in consideration.

"We took a look at that. … The canal has a 15.5-foot clearance requirement. We'd have to build embankments and make it ADA-accessible. It would cost $450 to $500,000," he said. "It's extremely costly. Is it completely off the table? No. But it pretty much is."

He did note that the project shouldn't affect boat traffic, and that the center third of the canal will remain open throughout the course of the project, as required by law.

The bridge will be closed during most of two summers, which business owners said is their busiest season. They said that suggests the closure would be catastrophic.

Instead of the proposed timeline of July 2019 through August 2020, residents urged the NYSDOT to consider beginning the project in fall 2019, to eliminate the loss of one summer period.

"Businesses really rely on the traffic from May through Labor Day to generate most of their yearly income. To have the bridge closed for two summers would be detrimental. Guests need to be able to walk across," said Winner. "I'd urge to you to address that."

Billittier said that could be taken into consideration.

Village Trustee Ken Rohr said that the village board has been working with NYSDOT for more than a year now, and he is confident that village concerns are being heard.

"The village board stays in constant contact with these DOT folks.The cooperation has been good, the communication is good and based on what we heard tonight, I think we can take some of those good suggestions and talk with the state in that regard as well," said Rohr. "My major concern is the duration of the project. Anything we as the administration can do to help minimize that is going to go a long way."

More: Informational meeting on Fairport lift bridge closure this evening

The rehabilitation is part of a greater project by the DOT to repair canal lift bridges along Route 250 and Route 259. That includes similar repairs and closures to the Spencerport lift bridge, which will be on the same timeline. An informational meeting is expected to take place in Spencerport next month.

LPEACE@Gannett.com