KERHONKSON – The saga of the dilapidated Kerhonkson Bridge continues, as the Ulster County Highway and Bridges Commissioner Dave Sheeley has informed Wawarsing Town Supervisor Ed Jennings that the bridge will have to be closed pending its replacement next year.

"This bridge has been scheduled and rescheduled for replacement time and time again, since 1993, only to be shoved back year after year," reads a letter Supervisor Jennings sent to the Journal on Tuesday. "The closing of the Kerhonkson Bridge will create a hardship for the entire community, especially to those who use the bridge every day."

According to Commissioner Sheeley, the bridge has yet to be closed by the county, though it has been flagged for closure after having failed a State Department of Transportation (DOT) inspection, the inspectors having found it to be "structurally inadequate." "I believe the condition that's causing this closure is excess rusting of the plates that hold the truss to the bottom of the bridge," says Sheeley.

Among Jennings's concerns are the diminished response times for emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks, and police, which will have to use 44/55 and Berme Road, "which will delay precious minutes, especially if it's a medical emergency. "This is yet another example of Ulster County government demonstrating how insensitive they are to the needs of the Town of Wawarsing by delaying or denying much needed and necessary projects. I hope District One Ulster County Legislators step up to the plate and resolve this problem as quickly as possible. Who knows, a life may depend upon it."

Responding to Jennings's concerns, Sheeley says that the situation may not be quite as dire as it might seem.

"Of course it's going to make response time a little bit longer, but it's not like it's inaccessible," he says. "There are bridges that, when they have to be replaced, make the whole area inaccessible for a much longer period of time, so it's not the worst-case scenario. And you do have 44/55 right up there that provides access to 209 and so forth."

Sheeley says that he has spoken with members of the Kerhonkson Fire Department in the past, and that the firefighters themselves acknowledge that they'll be slowed in certain situations, but on the whole, will be able to deal with it.

The closure may also work out for the bridge's benefit in the end, in that it ought to put the project higher up on the list of DOT projects.

"I'm certainly hoping it does," says Sheeley of the project becoming a higher priority for the department, "because that, I think, has been a problem of the DOT's. This project has been going on for far too long."

While he is uncertain about when work on the bridge can finally commence, he says that the Department of Environmental Conservation has said that the earliest they can begin work in the water around the bridge is April 1.

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