Cautionary video for Rooftop Highway?
I saw this new video from the Avett Brothers and instantly thought of the push for a “Rooftop Highway” between Watertown and Plattsburgh.
If you haven’t heard about this road project, listen to David Sommerstein’s latest report on it here.
The important thing is this project has been the dream of thousands of people across northern New York. And these people have been dreaming about it for decades.
They’re now calling it “I-98” – despite pretty clear messages from the state that it’s not even a blip on the transportation department’s radar.
Advocates for the Rooftop Highway are undaunted. And they’re going to the towns and villages that would be future exits on I-98 and asking for money to market the project.
According to a story in today’s Watertown Daily Times, the St Lawrence County town of Stockholm turned down the request for $2,500.
Maybe they’ve seen this video. The song is Head Full Of Doubt:
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Brian what stage of the video do you think the North Country is in? Sitting up here in Ogdensburg and Massena it seems like we are in the part AFTER the place collapses, except what we have left isn’t a nice field!
mervel – Jonathan wrote this
Ooops sorry Jonathan. It is a cool video.
I can understand your doubt – maybe I even share it, at least in part. But then I think of the municipal power effort, which after 14 years of work has passed a bill creating a power authority for our region in both houses of the NYS legislature, and which expects the Governor to sign the bill shortly. Sometimes the believers who push through the doubts accomplish their goals.
New York State’s “ROAD TO NOWHERE” or, 4-6 billion and 150 miles of moonlit highway.
In my wildest imagination, I can not think of a less useful idea than the proposal to build a 4 lane super highway through the northern tier of the state. As our existing roads and bridges dissolve into the ground or fall into the rivers, we are on the verge of building a monstrosity of historical proportions that will completely bisect all of Northern New York. This project carries a first-phase predicted cost of 4 Billion dollars. If this is the predicted price, my prediction is that it will come at a significantly higher price, especially after adjacent infrastructure upgrade and maintenance is taken into account. Where will this money come from?
Another consideration is the hundreds, if not thousands of homes and farms that will be appropriated through eminent domain to clear a right-of-way from Leray to Plattsburg. Where will those displaced people wind up? Central New York, from Buffalo to Albany already has a 4 lane super highway, a well developed rail system, significant airport infrastructure, high speed communications, industrial real estate over-capacity and a higher density of available work force and with all of that, industry is not exactly breaking down New York’s door to locate in the midst of that. The I98 proponents are suggesting that businesses and industry will, for some reason, flock to Brasher Falls or Cherbusco Corners instead.
The proponents have published some wild predictions of 27, 000 new, post construction jobs in the region. First of all, if this is federally funded, there will be no guarantee of any local hires, as the project will have to be bid nationally. Further, there are no construction companies anywhere near here that have the capability of handling a project of this magnitude. Where are these numbers coming from except from the proponents and their willing consultants and supporters? I have not seen any critical analysis of this proposal. I’d like to see a list of the businesses and industries signed up to move in. The industries that have fled the North Country over the past three decades have not left because of an inadequate transit system. It is worth noting that CSX recently retrenched it’s service in the Syracuse to MAssena corridor due to a lack of profitability potential in the region.
While most of us slept,, the proponents of the project have one by one, gotten the approval of most of the town boards, county legislatures, and major political party faithful, as well as a resolution of support from the New York State legislature. How many of you heard about any of these things BEFORE they were voted on by these various bodies. I have been following this discussion and in every instance, I have found out about these things after they had been ratified by these various boards and bodies. At this point, most of the approvals to move on to the implementation phase of this boondoggle are already in place. The only impediment at this point is financing. Once that hurdle is overcome, it’s a done deal.
i would whole-heartedly agree with john’s comments with the addition of pushing for the DOT’s plan of by-passes and passing lanes. this could start sometime soon and create plenty of jobs. the now snarled up villages could become more friendly to shoppers and visitors. the truckers would have way fewer lights to contend with making it more efficient to travel through our area. instead nothing is happening as all this energy goes into roof-top promotions at the expense of the villages. i would hope that the village boards rethink this project and opt out in favor of a DOT approved by-pass
Has anyone from OBPA, (Ogdensburg Bridge And Port Authority), ever driven from exit 49 on rt. 81, to Massena? It’s a straight run with virtually no impediment to a 55-65 mph average speed except for Redwood, Hammond Brier Hill and Waddington which have reduced speed zones. This and other routes could be modified and improved for a small fraction of the, “Build It And They Will Come”, cost of the behemoth called I-98.
Another consideration: HAve the town boards really considered how much this is going to complicate their lives and increase their costs down the road as they have to offer every manner of infrastructure upgrades and infrastructure maintenance to, ‘link up’? How about the PILOTS that will inevitably be required to ‘incentivize’ having business even consider locating here. If any business does relocate to the region and it requires attracting a skilled workforce to locate here, how is that going to happen? What impact will there be on our schools, water and sewer systems, electric grid capacity, internet limitations, housing, land use and on and on. Planning? Zoning? This all costs money and that will be on top of the 4 billion which, as I said will certainly end up being a much higher number. In all of this, I still haven’t seen one rational, dispassionate, impartial explanation of where these, “… 27,000 potential jobs”, will come from. What’s the payback time on 6 or 7 billion dollars of what very likely will be a modestly developed South-north corridor in the Ogdensburg to Massena areas followed by what may very well turn out to be 150 miles of mostly deserted highway that now diverts traffic away from the villages along the way, ( How many of you have been through Richville or Antwerp of late?).
We need to look at the WHOLE picture here … the upsides and the downsides before we drink too much of the ‘Koolade”.
I drove to Buffalo recently from Massena. It took 2-1/2 hours to get to Watertown, then another 2 hours to Buffalo. John, do you even realize that we are not offered overnight service in this area from UPS or FedEx. Have you ever driven from Plattsburg to Watertown? Give yourself about 6 hours. Antwerp and Richville? Who cares, I want to bypass these places anyway. This Potsdam mentality of trapping people in town with stop lights is ridiculous. It actually makes me less likely to stop. The idea that some brand new highway is going to be built is just fantacy. They will modify existing roads and create overpasses. Widen lanes. Following route 37 would be a great idea and that is part of the problem. You would totally bypass Canton and Potsdam which is where the resistence is coming from. With 4 colleges, those two towns should not complain about economic impact. They should maximize what the have already.
We use rt. 37 to get to exit 49 on rt. 81 when we drive from Heuvelton to points south. It has never taken us more than one hour to get to rt. 81. This, by the way, roughly is the South-to-north corridor that goes from rt. 81 to Ogdensburg and MAssena. Watertown to Buffalo in 2 hours? WOW, what are you driving? I totally agree that rt. 37 and rt. 11 could be made much friendlier for a fraction of the cost of I-98. Either way, bypassing Canton and Potsdam is inevitable with either option. Two years ago, Canton made it abundantly clear that it did not want upgrades to the road through the village. As for the UPS Fed-Ex situation, I can only surmise that this is a business decision based on volume needs. I have not heard that transportation infrastructure is the problem.I have driven from Heuvelton to Burlingtoin many times and it has never taken more than 4-4.5 hours for me to get to Burlington. That could be improved by about 30 minutes, I think, if you didn’t have to go through Canton, Potsdam and Malone. That hardly seems worth 4-plus billion dollars to me.
The real impetus for this I-98 project is coming from a fairly small group of bureaucrats and politicians who want the credit for, “… bringing home the bacon”. The promise is that it’s not going to cost us anything because the state or the feds will pay the tab. Let’s hope that Stockholm’s decision is a sign that some of the town boards that have passively gone along with all of this up until now, based on some pretty speculative information, ( JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!), that this whole thing is going to be a never-ending money pit that displaces hundreds or thousands of landowners and ruins a whole region of the state.
I would bet that at 65mph on a straight highway you could cut 1-1/2 hrs off your trip to Burlington. Its 177 miles. 1-1/2 hrs is a lot of time. Catch a movie and stimulate the economy.