By Kevin Ostrowski
TONAWANDA — Four years after officials first announced a high-tech fix, the City of Tonawanda has given final approval to the money behind a warning system meant to stop tractor-trailers from slamming into the Young Street railroad bridge.
The Common Council on Oct. 20 approved a resolution moving forward with a $1.225 million over-height vehicle detection and warning project near the CSX bridge, the Ken-Ton Bee reported. The resolution says a federal highway grant covers 100% of eligible project costs.
“They’ve done the initial work before. This is the final authorization,” Mayor Bill Strassburg said, according to the Bee.
A bridge that keeps winning
The bridge carries rail traffic over Young Street near Harriet Street. It has a posted clearance of 11 feet, 6 inches, while most modern tractor-trailers stand about 13 feet, 6 inches, according to The Buffalo News, as republished by Government Technology.
Counts of the crashes vary with who is counting and over what stretch of time. Now-retired police Capt. Frederic Foels logged at least 64 strikes between 2000 and 2022, The News reported. The Bee put the total at more than 65 since 2000. Speaking to WKBW, Strassburg offered a larger figure.
“Over the past probably 25 to 30 years, we’ve had over 100 trucks hit this bridge,” Strassburg said, according to the station.
Police Chief Jamin Butcher told the Bee the department has handled three strikes so far this year, in April and September, plus a possible strike Oct. 6. Officials blame drivers who follow GPS directions and ignore the warning signs. The city banned trucks on part of Young Street in 2019, and the crashes kept coming, The News reported.
Nobody has been hurt, but each strike can close the street for hours. Police contact CSX to inspect the span after a crash. A CSX spokesperson previously told The News the bridge “remains 100% structurally sound and safe for train movements,” and that raising it would be “a significant engineering project with impacts to numerous other bridges.”
How the system is supposed to work
Poles on each approach will project a beam across the road at the bridge’s clearance height, Strassburg told the Bee. A truck that breaks the beam will trigger flashing warning signs, and the driver will be steered to a marked detour before reaching the bridge.
“It’s not just signs, there’s a lot of roadwork,” the mayor said. The project includes reinforced pavement so larger trucks can make the turn onto the detour safely.
City Engineer Jason LaMonaco described the idea to The News. “So, if they trigger the warning, and they’re paying attention and they see the sign, they can then follow the detour and not strike the bridge or not cause a closure,” he said.
No one is promising perfection. “We know this won’t eliminate it,” Strassburg told the Bee. “Because there is the human element of the driver.”
Assemblyman Bill Conrad, whose district office sits just across Ellicott Creek from the bridge, told The News he has heard trucks hit the span from his office at least three times. “But deep down, I think the skeptic in me is going to say these problems are still going to continue until we rectify a lot of the GPS issues with the trucking routes with our Canadian traffic,” he said.
Questions about cost and timing
The price has moved a bit over the years. It was announced in July 2022 as a $1.2 million project by then-Rep. Brian Higgins, Conrad and then-Mayor John White. The council has now appropriated $1.225 million, and WKBW reported the mayor put the cost at about $1.3 million.
The resolution authorizes the city treasurer to make the money available from the capital project fund for design, right-of-way, construction and inspection costs, the Bee reported. Federally funded projects typically require a city to put up its own money first and get paid back later, and the city expects full reimbursement, The News reported. The resolution also requires the council to reconvene if costs run over the approved amount, the Bee reported. The money comes from the National Highway Freight Program and is administered by the state Department of Transportation, The News reported.
The timeline has shifted too. LaMonaco told The News the project could go out to bid as soon as this fall. A DOT spokesperson, Glenn Blain, wrote to The News that the state was “awaiting project documentation from the City of Tonawanda before the project can proceed to letting, which is tentatively scheduled for early next year.” WKBW reported construction is expected to start in spring 2027, and the city hopes to finish by fall 2027.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked the mayor’s office what documentation remains outstanding with the state, what happens if bids come in above the appropriation, and how the detour route will be signed for residents on nearby streets. This story will be updated with any response.
Sources: Ken-Ton Bee (Chitra Selvaraj); WKBW (Taylor Anthony); The Buffalo News via Government Technology. Featured photo: downtown City of Tonawanda, file photo, by Andre Carrotflower / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).
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