Officials embroiled in dispute over Duanesburg bridge’s safety

Highway Superintendent Steve Perog insists the 18-foot-long box culvert bridge he built on Ash Lane is safe.

The structure incorporates roughly 48 tons of concrete and easily withstood the load of a track hoe he used to build it in October. He said the three I-beams he used to support the deck weigh about 12 tons by themselves.

“You look at the bridge and you say it’s overkill,” he said Friday. “And it is.”

But town officials see the bridge differently. Because Perog didn’t create a design for the project and then used questionable materials to build it, the county refuses to certify the bridge.

The Duanesburg Fire Department and the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Corp both sent letters indicating they wouldn’t use the bridge. Members of the Town Board also have their misgivings about the structure, posting it as a closed bridge due to the legal liability it poses.

“[The county engineer] looked at Steve’s job and said nothing about it could be certified as safe to use — absolutely nothing,” said board member Charles Leoni.

Now the town is scrambling to replace the structure before winter. The lack of a certifiable structure also means they’ll need to rent a temporary bridge for about $1,000 per week until a new one can be commissioned.

Leoni said the old bridge was in bad condition, but would have made do while the new one was being built beside it. He said he and board member Jean Frisbee asked Perog not to rip out the old bridge, only to have him ignore their pleas.

“We both begged him not to do it,” he said.

Perog tells it differently. He said the two board members approached him after he had already removed the rotted deck of the old bridge.

“They waited until I ripped off the old deck,” he said.

The two homeowners on the other side of the unnamed tributary of the Normanskill have been advised to walk over the bridge, rather than drive their cars. Leoni acknowledged the residents are likely still driving over the bridge, despite the large sign posted there.

“We can’t help if people still use it,” he said. “But the sign is there to warn people not to use it.”

Perog believes the fuss over the bridge has more to do with politics than it does safety, considering his tumultuous relationship with the Town Board. He said the beams he used to create the bridge came from the Route 7 bridge over the Normanskill and each weigh about 8,000 pounds, which is more than enough to support any vehicle traffic going over it.

Perog said the bridge also cost the taxpayers hardly anything. By using all donated materials, he said the sum total of the project cost the town about 10 hours of overtime he paid workers during the replacement, which took about 11 hours.

He said the town’s solution to get the bridge certified will cost well over $20,000. He said the temporary bridge alone could cost that much.

“This is just politics playing out,” he said. “The Town Board wants to beat me up one more time and this is the perfect thing for them to do it.”

County spokesman Joe McQueen said the decision will ultimately be up to the town. He said a county engineer had advised Perog to use an engineer so the bridge could be certified as safe.

“It’s a town road, it’s a town decision,” he said.

Supervisor Rene Merrihew said leaving Perog’s bridge alone isn’t really an option. She said the design alone poses significant safety questions that cannot be resolved without a new bridge.