Albion denied in Bridge NY grant to fix Brown Street bridge

Photo by Tom Rivers: The Brown Street bridge is shown on Thursday evening over the Erie Canal in Albion. The bridge has been closed for more than a decade.

ALBION – The Albion Village Board acknowledges it was a “long shot.” The village applied for a Bridge NY grant to fix the Brown Street bridge, which has been closed for about a decade.

Village Board members worry about the deteriorating condition of the bridge. They say paint and pieces are falling into the canal.

The village didn’t get the grant that sought $5,574,000 to overhaul the bridge, but Deputy Mayor Joyce Riley said the board isn’t going to sit back and accept the bridge’s sad fate.

Jay Grasso, the village’s grant writer, said other projects were approved in the county for Bridge NY money. He said the state tries to spread out the funds around the state.

“Only so much can go into Orleans County,” he told the board on Wednesday.

The Village Board back in February reached out to the county, state and federal levels for help with the deteriorating Brown Street bridge. The structure from 1912 has been closed to vehicular traffic since July 18, 2012 after an inspection by the state Department of Transportation showed serious deterioration of major elements of the steel truss floor system.

The board wants the bridge to get a major rehabilitation or be removed. A letter has been sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle, State Sen. Rob Ortt, Assemblyman Steve Hawley and County Legislature Chairwoman Lynne Johnson. But Riley says the response has been “crickets.”

The bridge is owned by the state Department of Transportation. The village was able to get DOT permission to apply for the Bridge NY grant.

The bridge remains open for pedestrians, but village officials said rusty bridge pieces are falling into the canal. The board included photos in the letter of the bridge, calling it a “biohazard” for the Erie Canal.

“You can see clearly from the pictures the erosion of paint, rust, steel fragments, missing bolts and concrete that have fallen into the canal,  contaminating it and its tributaries, like Sandy Creek,” according to the letter from the board.