DOT listened, and responded, to Madrid residents

It’s reassuring to hear that, despite expected state funding cutbacks, the Department of Transportation has responded to local residents and “fast-tracked” repairs to the Route 345 bridge in Madrid.

DOT plans to rehabilitate the nine-span stone arch bridge, which the department closed earlier this year due to safety concerns, and reopen it by December 2009, not sometime in 2010 as originally expected.

Ever since the bridge was closed in May, it has been a real hardship for Madrid residents, now forced to make an eight-mile detour.

The result -- a longer commute for many residents traveling to work each day, fewer sales at downtown businesses on the north side of the bridge, delayed responses by rescue squad vehicles and challenges for school buses.

Now the $5.8 million bridge repair and reconstruction project is one of DOT’s two highest priorities, according to reporting by Watertown Daily Times and News 10 Now.

At a presentation at Madrid-Waddington Central School on Wednesday, DOT spokesman Michael R. Flick noted "A lot of begging, a lot of cajoling, a lot of calling in favors" was required to speed up the Madrid bridge reconstruction project, according to the Times. "We've heard what these folks have had to say, everybody's gotten the message.”

Of course, you can’t design and build a new bridge, or in the case of the Madrid span, reconstruct a structure more than 100 years old, in a matter of months. Such a project takes planning and time to do the job right.

But DOT is to be commended for listening – and responding – to citizens’ pleas to reopen the bridge as soon as possible.

DOT also plans to reconstruct about three-tenths of a mile of Route 345 with curbs, sidewalks and a closed drainage system. That work should be finished by summer of 2010.

Bids on the project are scheduled to be let in June.