Erie County Leads State in ‘Poor’ Conditioned Bridges
ERIE COUNTY, NY – County Executive Candidate Mark Poloncarz blasted Chris Collins’ failed record of addressing the county’s crumbling bridges and his refusal to spend millions of dollars in federal job creation assistance on much-needed infrastructure improvements today at a press conference on Leydecker Road in West Seneca.
“Chris Collins likes to tout how under his administration all of Erie County’s bridges are open,” said Poloncarz. “Being open is one thing, but being safe for our families to travel over is another. While Collins likes to think our roads and bridges are in the ‘best shape ever,’ it appears that in reality, they are in the worst shape in New York State.”
In a recent story regarding the expensive and expansive work needed to repair New York’s roads and bridges, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle* noted that “Erie County led the state in the number of bridges with ratings under 5, with 312,” of which 108 bridges are county-owned. Additionally noted was that “Erie and Monroe counties rank second and third in the state in the number of structurally deficient bridges, with 75 and 68 respectively,” of which 40 bridges are county-owned. The bridge on Leydecker Road was given a 3.96 rating (on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best) at its last inspection by New York State in November of 2010 and deemed “structurally deficient.”
Upon reviewing New York State Department of Transportation’s (NYSDOT) Highway Bridge Data, released on August 31, 2011, the Poloncarz campaign learned that 108 of the “poor” bridges and 40 of the “structurally deficient” bridges are county-owned. That means that of the county’s 283 bridges, more than 38 percent are considered “poor” and even more dangerously, 14 percent are considered “structurally deficient.”
Poloncarz continued, “As Collins likes to say, ‘facts don’t lie.’ And the facts are that 40 percent of the county’s bridges are in poor condition and 14 percent are structurally deficient. That is not only embarrassing but incredibly dangerous. The fact that Collins is hiding behind misleading campaign commercials only highlights his record of failure. The people of Erie County who travel these bridges know better and can’t be fooled.”
Under Collins, the county has stopped going after many grants from the state and federal government that generate a positive benefit for the county.
“As County Executive, I will aggressively go after federal transportation dollars,” Poloncarz said. “There are many opportunities we could be taking advantage of, but aren’t. Chris Collins doesn’t work with our local federal delegation, but I will.”
Making matters worse, Collins decided to play politics with tens of millions of dollars in federal assistance provided to the county that could have created hundreds of jobs working on long-needed infrastructure improvements. During his 2010 State of the County address, he proudly noted he did not spend a cent of more than $40 million in stimulus assistance to balance the budget.
Poloncarz added, “What he doesn’t tell the hardworking men and women of Erie County is he didn’t spend the assistance just he could roll it over into a manufactured surplus. He did much the same in 2010. In effect, he refused to spend tens of millions of dollars of job creating assistance to protect one job – his own. Now that Election Day is approaching, he is finally started to spend the stimulus assistance on some job-creating measures. It is obvious that he cares more about his own job than the well being of his constituents. This is unacceptable and you deserve better.”
The Poloncarz campaign invites Erie County residents to show Chris Collins the real condition of our county roads and bridges by emailing photos of bad conditions to information@markpoloncarz.com. More photos taken by the campaign in the past week can be viewed at Poloncarz’s Flickr site.
Poloncarz concluded, “Anyone driving around Erie County, especially in the rural towns can plainly see that our infrastructure is not getting the attention that it requires. As County Executive, I pledge to address our crumbling roads and bridges based on priority, not politics. I will create a tip line so that residents can call in and report poor road and bridge conditions and get real answers on when they will be fixed, not the lip service and empty promises of the current administration.”
PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENTS.
* Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 25, 2011, “New York’s roads, bridges need expansive, expensive work,” http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110925/NEWS01/109250353/Last-Week-New-York-s-roads-bridges-need-expansive-expensive-work