"Cost of Lake Bridge Began at $1.25 Million," Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal
        The Post-Journal website:  http://post-journal.com/

"Cost Of Lake Bridge Began At $1.25 Million"
By Charles Bowen

    On the back of a sales register in the Skillman and Wight General Store in Bemus Point is a small drawing of the Bemus Point Ferry underneath an artist's conception of a proposed Chautauqua Lake Bridge.  They are labeled respectively, the old way and the new way.

    The date of the drawings is 1923.

    The new way officially begins today, nearly 60 years after the idea was first put forth, and 17 years after New York state first announced its plans to construct a bridge connecting Stow and Bemus Point.

    The idea of constructing a span across the lake has been the center of controversy for decades.  The plan first started to gain serious consideration in the early 1950s when local lawmakers sought to alleviate summertime traffic problems in Bemus Point, and the necessary 20-mile detour around the lake in the winter when the ferry was not operating.

    In early 1958, the county Board of Supervisors proposed to build a bridge for $1.25 million.  To offset the construction costs, a 25-cent toll would have been charged to motorists. That idea was quickly aborted later the same year when it was learned the state was considering reconstructing  Route 17 into a four-lane highway.  The state Department of Public Works was also pondering its own  bridge across the lake. 

    Area lawmakers lobbied for the next four years to get construction of the proposed expressway off the drawing board.  Funding finally became available at the end of 1964, but state officials had still not determined the route the highway should follow.

    By autumn of 1965, the state had awarded contracts for test borings in Chautauqua Lake to determine the feasibility of spanning the lake.  Two months later, on November 5, 1965, The state Department of Public Works first announced that the corridor for the Southern Tier Expressway from Levant to the Pennsylvania border will go north of Falconer and Jamestown to Bemus Point, and cross the lake to Stow.  

    The original cost was listed at between $6 million to $8 million, but that figure was called erroneous at a public hearing three weeks later.  State officials told Jamestown residents the actual price tag was in the neighborhood of $16 million.

    Additional soil testing was done in 1967-68, and some design changes were necessitated.  Work was further delayed by the state's austerity budget.

    Because the expressway was not designated as an interstate, it received only 50 percent federal funding with the state paying the remainder.  Interstate designation would guarantee that the federal government would pay for 90 percent of the construction.

    A $2.5 billion transportation bond issue was defeated in the November 1971 election by voters, pushing expressway construction projects into limbo until funding was to become available.  State officials pointed out that the longer the project was delayed, the greater the eventual cost. 

    The Following spring, contracts were awarded to tear down 70 buildings and relocate  20 families on both sides of the lake to pave the way for the bridge construction.

    But it had become apparent that contrary to the purpose of the bridge, the span seemed to be driving people further apart, rather than serving as a vital link in the community.

    Three months after the contract was awarded, advertisements were run in Chautauqua County newspapers urging residents to oppose the bridge.  More than 1,800 people responded to the notices printed Aug. 21, 1971.   

    Despite the apparent mounting opposition to the bridge, a $14.7 million contract was awarded in June 1973 to the Raymond International Inc. to construct the bridge substructure. 

    Actual construction finally got under way in the summer of 1973, but the euphoria quickly evaporated.  In November, a Committee to Stop the Bridge Across Chautauqua Lake filed suit in U.S. District Court to stop construction of the bridge because is said DOT failed to complete environmental-impact statements and hold public hearings on the bridge plans.

    Preliminary foundation work continued despite the court action.

    The bridge had split the community.  On one side were local lawmakers, county officials, and county residents, who pushed for the construction as an economic boom to the area.  On the other side were the plaintiffs in the  court action including Jamestown Community College Biology Professor Royal Steubing, the Chautauqua County Environmental Defense Council, the Jamestown Audubon Society, Trout Unlimited and the Chautauqua Lake Power Boat Club.  They wanted to ensure that environmental concerns were not swept under the rug in the rush to build the span.

    U.S. District Court Judge John O. Henderson heard arguments on Jan. 14, 1974, and ordered U.S. Magistrate Edmund F. Maxwell to conduct hearings on the environmental questions posed in the suit by the anti-bridge committee.  Maxwell was instructed to report back to Henderson with recommendations. 

    During the arguments, Henderson brought chuckles to the courtroom when he revealed his "whole hand" and told attorneys that he is a member of the Buffalo Audubon Society through " the family plan."  Henderson said he was asked to participate in field trips in a chauffeur's capacity because his wife is an active member of the Audubon Society in Buffalo.  Henderson told the courtroom he participates in the ventures for the sake of watching "the enthusiasm displayed by those in search of the red-headed woodpecker."

    Even though the Jamestown Audubon Society was one of the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit, attorneys from both sides still said they considered Henderson to be an impartial judge.

    During the suit, Henderson heard the plaintiffs contend that the state failed to comply with the 1969 national Environmental Policy Act.

    The environmental-impact statements, instead of accompanying the proposal for the bridge, were written after DOT decided to build and fund the bridge.  The plaintiffs also claimed the federal government should have prepared detailed environmental statements concerning the span instead of delegating authority for the work to the DOT.

    The defendants argued that the Southern Tier Expressway was approved by the Appalachian Commission in 1966 and is not subject to the impact statement contained in the 1969 law.

    Eventually others became involved in the case with 3,700 petition signers, led by then Bemus Point Mayor Thom Shagla, getting full party status on behalf of the defense, and the Environmental Defense Fund, a national ecology organization with more than 50,000 members, aligned with the plaintiffs.  The defense league was granted amicus curiae or friend of the court status.

    While awaiting Maxwell's recommendation, construction of the substructure was halted on April 8, 1974, by picket lines manned by striking operators from Local 17 in Buffalo.  Work did not begin again for more than four years.

    Three days after the contract dispute interrupted construction work, Maxwell recommended to federal Judge John T. Curtin that a temporary injunction be granted to halt construction on allegations that the state failed to comply with federal laws in preparing an environmental-impact study.  Curtin had assumed responsibility for the suit following the death of Henderson.

    In light of Maxwell's report, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Raymond Schuler ordered a halt to the bridge construction on April 19, 1974, pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

    A month later, on May 20, 1974, Curtin granted a temporary injunction on bridge construction pending preparation of an environmental-impact statement.  The DOT began an immediate appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

    The state based its appeal on the contention that the anti-bridge committee waited too long to file the suit, known in legal terms as laches.

    On Oct. 30, 1974, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard the appeal, and reserved judgment.  Meanwhile, Raymond International, the firm holding the more than $14 million contract for the bridge substructure, waited in limbo.  The state said $5.1 million had been spent so far on the construction.

    More than three months later, on Feb. 13, 1975, U.S. Appeals Court Justices Walter R. Mansfield, Leonard P. Moore and Edward J. Lombard affirmed the injunction.

    The bridge became one of three construction options for the expressway to travel through Chautauqua County; the others being a northerly route to Westfield and a roadway traveling south of Jamestown.  Twelve days later, the DOT officially canceled its contract for the bridge substructure with Raymond International Inc.

    On July 1, 1975, the DOT announces the five concrete pilings sunk in the lake will be removed by the end of August.    

    Sixteen months later, on Nov.16, 1976, the draft environmental-impact statement was released.

    A variable who's who of local lawmakers spoke at Southwestern Central School a month later in support of the bridge completion.  The hearing was the first in the area concerning the draft environmental-impact statement.  Assemblymen Rolland Kidder and Daniel B. Walsh, Sen. Jess J. Present, County Executive Joseph Gerace, and county Legislators Robert L. Barber and Joseph Lepkowski all reaffirm their support for a quick completion.  Nearly 1,000 people jam the auditorium.

    After initial objections, the Federal Department of Transportation gave its seal of approval to the environmental-impact statement on Feb. 3,1978.  Three months later, on May 5, Curtin lifted the injunction against the building of the Chautauqua Lake Bridge.  Work resumed in July.  Kiewith-Raymond Inc. became the general contractor for the substructure more than four years after work was first halted.

    However, the controversy was not over.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Army Corps of Engineers battled over realigning 500 feet of Bemus Creek.  The Fish and Wildlife Service said the environmental impact statement did not adequately answer questions about the effect of the bridge project.

    About 15 percent of the work was being delayed because of the feud, the DOT reported.  That dispute remained unsettled until November 1978 when both sides agreed that further studies will be done during and after the construction.  Corrective measures would be taken if problems are detected.

    On April 27, 1979, the first test pilings were replaced for work on the substructure.

    Work went smoothly for the state-owned span.  The bridge plans called for a clearance of 40 feet  allowing tall-masted boats to pass under it.  The bridge has four lanes with concrete decks and asphalt shoulders.  The lanes are 12 feet wide and there will be 10 foot shoulders on the outside.  A 10-foot median in the center will have four-foot shoulders.

    On Feb. 29, 1980, a low bid of $30,997.24 was submitted by Walsh Construction Co. of Darien, Conn., a division of Guy F. Atkinson Co. for the construction of the actual superstructure.

    On May 17, 1982, DOT revealed that the $50 million bridge could be carrying traffic by as early as October.

    Oct. 30, 1982, the bridge is opened. 

Do You Know?

• The Chautauqua Lake Bridge is 4,359 feet long.

• It has a clearance of 40 feet.

• It cost almost $50.3 million to build.

• The length of the center span is 305 feet. 

• More than 21.3 million pounds of structural steel was used along with 3.8 million pounds of reinforcing steel.

• About 9,000 cubic yards of concrete was used for the deck.

• Thirty-six round concrete piles measuring 104 feet by 156 feet were used in the substructure.
  
  
   

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10/31/2003