Assemblywoman Addie Russell (D-Theresa) announced today that
she has secured accelerated funding totaling $9,240,000 from the NY Works
program for two North Country bridge projects. The two projects, both in St. Lawrence County,
are the Route 971U (Maple Street) Bridges over the Raquette River in the
Village of Potsdam and the Eel Weir Bridge over the Oswegatchie River in the
Town of Oswegatchie. These two projects
were not slated to begin until 2017 but now they will commence in 2014 and 2015
respectively.
“Once again, I am pleased to be able to accelerate funding
toward much need infrastructure projects in the North Country,”
said Assemblywoman Russell. These
bridges, in addition to the Route 180 Bridge project in Dexter I announced a
few weeks ago, are important projects in the realm of repairing aging
infrastructure and creating jobs in our area.”
Steven W. Yurgartis, Mayor of Potsdam said, “The village is very pleased that
Assemblywoman Russell is working to help us maintain our critical infrastructure.
The Maple Street bridge project is a perfect fit with
our economic development plans to build a River Walk to showcase our downtown
and the Raquette River. It also fits perfectly with our
goal of improving pedestrian and bicycle travel in a village with 7,000
students." Potsdam is home to Clarkson University and SUNY Potsdam.
“It is better
to be proactive in replacing our aging bridge infrastructure so that we can
avoid sudden closures and the burdens they place on residents and businesses,”
Russell argued. “I have been a champion
for funding infrastructure so that assets like our many bridges are economic
drivers and compliment community development plans,” she stated.
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