(ankakay / flickr)
A project to replace much of the cracked and broken bluestone sections of sidewalk along a portion of Main and Partition streets has been shelved until 2017, according to Alex Wade, who’s in charge of special projects for the Village of Saugerties. The state Department of Transportation has agreed to allow the village to use some of the funding from the recently completed streetscape project that came in about $200,000 under bid for the work.
An agreement with the Ulster County Transportation Committee is still needed. In a report to village trustees, Wade said the UCTC had yet to put the project on its list of authorized projects.
The project calls for about 200 feet of cracked, broken and crumbled bluestone sidewalks to be replaced with new pieces.
Wade had originally said getting the county and the state to come to an agreement wouldn’t be a big problem. He had hoped approval would come in time for the project to be done this fall.
However, village mayor William Murphy said Friday that he had received a note from Wade telling him the project wouldn’t begin until some time next year.
Storeowners, pedestrians, and trustees have been complaining about the state of some of the bluestone sidewalks for more than a year, and village officials believed they had it all worked out.
Murphy said he’s unsure whether the work will be done in the spring or the fall of 2017. “We were hoping for this year,” Murphy said.