After more than 2 years, Albion bridge reopens to traffic

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – An Albion police vehicle driven by officer Chris Glogowski was the first to cross the Main Street lift bridge after it reopened to traffic today at about 4:30 p.m.

Many of the cars and trucks that followed beeped their horns in delight that the bridge was back open after being closed since Nov. 14, 2022. When it closed, the state Department of Transportation estimated it would reopen in 18 months or the spring of 2024.

But there have been delays in getting materials for the project, pushing the completion back.

The bridge rails on the inside of the bridge, for example, didn’t arrive until a week ago. Those rails are critical to protecting the bridge’s beams.

A happy construction worker from Crane-Hogan Structural Systems in Spencerport removes a sign about the bridge being out.

Crane-Hogan served as general contractor for the project. The company said there is more work today below the bridge with the lifting mechanism. The bridge may need to close briefly in the spring before the project is entirely complete.

A construction worker takes photos of a 40,000-pound crane going over the bridge as part of a final inspection to make sure the bridge didn’t shift from the weight.

The community started to get excited when the concrete barriers were removed about 2:30 this afternoon on the southside of the bridge. Several people posted on social media, hopeful today would be the day for the bridge to reopen.

The barriers on the north side were removed about 3:30 p.m. DOT staff also took down the detour signs late this afternoon.

Liz Groat, one of the vendors at Downtown Browsery, said the closed bridge has been difficult on the downtown merchants, who first endured the misery and restrictions of Covid-19 in 2020, and then saw a big reduction in traffic since the bridge closed in late 2022.

Jim Theodorakos, owner of Morrison Realty, is thrilled to have the bridge back open. He said the detour, even just a block away on Ingersoll Street, has been inconvenient for the community. His business office is two buildings from the bridge on the south side.

He is thankful people can get to the office without “going around, and around, and around.”

He was able to cross the bridge just a few minutes after it reopened today.

The project is about six months late, with still more work to be done. The east side sidewalk remains closed to pedestrians so contractors can get in and out of the north pit below ground. The stairs will go in when the work is done in the pit. That deadline is just before the reopening of the Erie Canal for the navigation season in May.

The sidewalk on the west side is open to pedestrians.

Some of the steel fabricated was off by a tiny amount, but the lift bridge has a very low tolerance for imperfections with steel, one of the contractors said. Even being off by a thickness of a hair is unacceptable for some of the parts, he said.

About 80 percent of the bridge has new steel. The top steel beams and some of the diagonal pieces remain from the original 1914 bridge.

Crane-Hogan employees remove a “Road Closed” sign. The company and other construction workers cheered after the final inspection and the bridge was reopened. Some of the workers have been driving 1 ½ hours each way to work on the project.