Buskirk Bridge Completion Postponed Until June 2005

 

CAMBRlDGE, NY - During the town of Cambndge's regular December meeting Supervisor JoAnn Trinkle informed the board that the completion date for the Buskirk Covered Bridge has been postponed until June of 2005.

Trinkle teamed of this information while attending a meeting with Washington and Rensselaer county officials and project engineers at the bridge site. She said she was told the bridge will possibly open to traffic in March 2005 with a probable, but not guaranteed, total project completion in June.

At that meeting Trinkle asked one of the engineers how. much of the original bridge had been preserved. He would not give Trinkle a percentage but only pointed out some of the darker beams and said that they had come from the original bridge. To Trinkle it appeared that most of the reconstructed bridge was new with very few parts remaining from the original bridge.

The Buskirk Covered Bridge was closed to traffic on August 14, 2002 when a severe structural defect was discovered in one of the beams that supports the bridge during a routine annual inspection of the bridge. Washington County engineers closed the bridge until repairs could be made.