Officials want cooperation in building cyclists' tunnel
By BILL BYRON Gazette Reporter
ROTTERDAM JUNCTION - Officials may be close to ending an impasse that is keeping cyclists from crossing a set of railroad tracks intersecting the county bike path in Rotterdam Junction. A tunnel will be built underneath the tracks if county, town and Guilford Rail System officials can find a way to fund the project when they meet this week, a county official said Friday.
"We're assembling a working group to come to a resolution on this thing," Schenectady County Director of Public Works Joseph Ryan said. "We've asked the DOT to find us some funding sources, we've asked the railroad to talk to its engineering division for alternatives, and we're looking at tunneling under the railroad."
Track crossing The Bike-Hike Trail, which runs through Schenectady and Albany counties, crosses three Guilford tracks at Scrafford Lane in Rotterdam Junction. Those tracks have been regularly blocked by railroad cars since last year, and recently the company began threatening to arrest anyone attempting to cross the tracks.
If representatives from the three parties cannot find a way to fund the tunnel project at Thursday's meeting, the situation will probably be decided by attorneys, Ryan said.
"We're looking to come up with a positive alternative on this thing," Ryan said. "But one way or the other, we've got to reconnect it - I hope for a positive solution."
Calls to Guilford Friday were not immediately returned.
Rotterdam Highway Superintendent Harry Gordon agreed that money is the primary concern.
"We got a rough estimate of $300,000 but nobody seemed to know where they're going to get the money," Gordon said.
If "a positive alternative" cannot be agreed upon, the county will pursue the argument that the tracks cross a Rotterdam road and - for safety and other reasons - must be crossed to access parts of that public road, Ryan said.
Officials from the three parties first met Wednesday at an outdoor meeting on Scrafford Lane that was called by the state Department of Transportation in an effort to promote a statewide bike path, Gordon said. The DOT may help fund the tunnel project.
Some resolution must be made by August, however, to take advantage of those funds before the November deadline, Ryan said.
Looking to the railroad But state, county and town money must be supplemented by some financial support from Guilford, if the project is to be realized, Ryan said.
But both Gordon and Ryan seemed skeptical of a financial commitment from the railroad company.
"They said they would help with some of the engineering and some of that work, but they don't want to pay for it," Gordon said.
Ryan echoed the sentiment.
"It would have been easier if we'd have planned for it rather than being shocked and surprised," he said. "I just hope [Guilford will] want to follow through in helping to solve this."
The county bike path came to an end on Scrafford Lane until an extension was built in 1998. To use the extension from the former termination on Scrafford Lane, a path user must cross the tracks and travel less than a mile north on 5S to Iroquois Street.
Without crossing the tracks, a user must travel several miles out of the way to reach the Iroquois path.
Guilford officials claim that cyclists were never permitted to cross the tracks, but private access was granted to a nearby homeowner who needed to cross the tracks to access his house.
However, when that house burned down a few years ago, that access was no longer necessary.
Now that railroad cars are regularly left idling across the path, cyclists must crawl though the cars - and also risk being arrested by Guilford police - to get to the other side. reply to Gazette Newspapers: