CAPITAL REGION Costs of fixing runoff damage mount Road repairs need more time, money BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Runoff from thunderstorms that pummeled Schenectady County’s western edge last month caused damage in excess of initial estimates, state officials said Wednesday. Crews from the state Department of Transportation have completed repairs to the badly damaged Route 160 and culverts near the Thruway overpass in Pattersonville but face two more significant projects — a section of Route 5S in Rotterdam Junction and part of Route 20 in the Schoharie County town of Esperance. DOT Construction Supervisor Bob Remmers said the Route 160 project was initially estimated at $100,000. But he said the more than two weeks of work on the road certainly cost more than expected. “We have no real handle on the cost yet,” he said Wednesday. In late July, rainwater washed down onto Route 160 from the Thruway and the slope leading toward the town of Princetown. The runoff was awash with dirt, rocks and assorted rubbish, which clogged culverts, carved trenches along the road shoulder, caused a buckling of several segments of the highway and left nearly half a foot of sediment on nearby properties. “It was like the whole mountainside came down into our pipes,” he said. “You could see the water was just brown with sediment and debris.” Remmers said DOT crews stabilized a section of Route 5S near Lower Gregg Road that was partially eroded by the storm. But he said crews still need to do drainage work near the small creek that caused the damage. DOT workers also need to repair roadside erosion on Route 20 near the Route 30 intersection. He was unsure how much either of the remaining projects have cost so far or what the final tally would be for the emergency contract work.
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