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The New York State Department Of Transportation (DOT) has listed the Salmon Creek Bridge on State Route 34B (behind Lansing Middle School) as 'under construction'.  Residents have dreaded the closing since DOT representatives presented the project in 2017, and the time has finally come.  Lansing Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne said Tuesday that Tompkins County Highway Department's Jeff Smith confirmed that the project is being accelerated and the bridge will be closed November 10th.

The bridge was closed in 2015 when DOT inspectors found problems with the steel beneath the bridge deck during a routine inspection.  Repairs were made at that time, and the bridge project was developed and presented to the public at the Lansing Town Hall in 2017.  The 90 year old bridge is to be completely demolished and replaced.  According to a DOT official the structural deck had exceeded its intended service life of 40 years by a decade.  The new design was to replace the arched bridgewith a design that uses angled girders to distribute the weight load from the deck that will be rated for the maximum legal load for trucks.  A DOT representative said the new design will not have as many welds and is expected to last at least 75 years.


A smaller bridge that also spans Salmon Creek in the hamlet of Ludlowville, owned by Tompkins County, has also been under construction, sparking concerns that if the county and state projects were not coordinated Ludlowville residents could be severely impacted, not only because of lengthy detours, but also because it would become very difficult for emergency vehicles to access the hamlet.  After Lansing Fire Chief Scott Purcell wrote a letter to town officials, outlining longer response times anticipated by the closings, he received permission from the County  to drive large fire trucks over the newly rebuilt Red Bridge, despite that bridge's low posted tonnage cap.

LaVigne reported on Tuesday that the Ludlowville bridge is expected to be reopened by or before November 10th.

Daily bridge traffic is more than 7,700 vehicles.  Automobiles will presumably use Ludlowville and Myers Road as alternatives, while trucks are being routed north where they will have to travel up and across State Route 90 to get to the north-west portion of 34B.  In 2017 a design for a new bridge was shown at the Lansing Town Hall, and reportedly it has undergone some changes over the past few years.

The 34B bridge was supposed to be replaced in the spring, summer, and fall of 2019.  But despite alarming deterioration the construction was moved back a year, despite half the bridge being closed, and then a reduction in the allowed weight limit from 18 tons to 9 tons.  The basic project remains the same, however. 

The project was put to bid this summer, and the DOT says that construction begin this fall and the project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2022.

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