Scotia's Sunnyside Road bridge to close over safety, village says

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

FILE - The DOT Sunnyside Road bridge inspection Sept. 8

SCOTIA – A bridge on one of the most frequently traveled roads in Scotia is to be shut down until some time in 2024 after the state Department of Transportation deemed it unsafe to remain open, village officials said Monday.

The Sunnyside Road bridge is to officially close at noon on Wednesday and no traffic will then be allowed until it is repaired, some unspecified time in 2024, the village said in a release.

No traffic will be allowed until the repairs take place.

The process to replace the bridge over the CSX tracks just east of Washington Avenue has been ongoing for several years already, officials noted.

All traffic in the meantime will detour via Dutch Meadows Lane or through Schenectady, officials said.

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The bridge had been the subject of a DOT inspection last month, as the village hired an engineering firm to design plans for its replacement.

The underside of the bridge is owned by railroad company CSX and has been in disrepair, officials said. The road deck is owned by the village and has continued to see potholes.

The bridge has had seven red flags for various deficiencies, Mayor Thomas Gifford said in early September.

The bridge was built in the 1970s and water has seeped into the under part of the bridge, causing some of the steel to rust, Gifford has said.

The deck of the bridge was replaced in 2014, closing the bridge for two months. CSX has refused to fix it, Gifford said in September, so the village would.

The village recently received almost $4.8 million in grant funding from the Capital District Transportation Committee toward replacement of the bridge. The village will have to put up 5%, for which Gifford expected to use American Rescue Plan Act funds, he said in early September.

The village also hired CHA Consulting for over $725,000 to develop the design for the bridge.