Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad President and CEO Carl Belke says a new rail bridge along the right-of-way in Falconer, N.Y., is nearly complete, and under budget, as a result of emergency repair work.
The bridge failed a 2011 inspection for the minimum federal weight requirements. At the time, Western New York and Pennsylvania (WNYP) had $1.6 million in funding for tie replacement. But "after receiving permission from the New York State Department of Transportation, we moved the funding from replacement of the ties to what became construction of a new bridge in Falconer," Belke told local media.
Wrap-up work includes construction of a walkway and the restoration of a 1½-acre site classified as wetlands, Belke said. Work should be completed by next May.
About $500,000 in funds is left over, which Belke would like to apply to its original purpose, tie replacement. That would require the assent of New York's Department of Transportationsand the Regional Eonomic Development Council for the Western Region.
Falconer, N.Y.-based WNYP also will receive more than $1 million from the state DOT for replacement of 8,000 ties from Olean, N.Y., to the Pennsylvania border, and a Pennsylvania DOT grant of $840,000 to replace about 12,000 ties over a 14½-mile section of the railroad's Oil City branch in the Keystone State