With a public hearing at the Palace Theatre scheduled tonight, officials are touting a project to replace a Civil War-era rail bridge over the Hudson River in downtown Albany with a new structure.
Most Capital Region residents are familiar with the metal and wood bridge stretching across the Hudson River between Albany and Rensselaer. It looks about as old as the city itself.
The current Livingston Avenue Bridge has two train tracks and a walkway that made it possible to walk across the river, but the walkway was closed decades ago due to safety concerns. One of the train tracks was also closed and the speed and weight limit for the remaining track has been repeatedly lowered. Freight trains can currently only cross at a max of 15 miles per hour. The bridge is also a functional swing bridge, which splits and lifts the track to allow for large ships to pass through on the Hudson below.
New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez says the project will improve passenger rail service for the whole Northeast.
“Anyone who rides the rails in upstate New York knows all too well that travel delays caused by this antiquated bridge are truly real,” she said. “The bridge connects Rensselaer and Albany by rail and it really does provide a critical path west of here, right? This line connects all the way out to Buffalo and then beyond and what we want to do is make sure that we don't only have consistent, but regular service here.”
The new bridge will be built just south of the current structure and will support higher-speed passenger rail and freight rail. Instead of an outdated swing mechanism, the new structure will be a lift bridge, which can raise a whole section of the track vertically to allow access below it for large ships. It will also include a bicycle-pedestrian walkway.
The Livingston Avenue Railroad Bridge project in Albany and Rensselaer will cost about $400 million and is expected to take about three years to complete. The funding was included in the state budget passed in April.
The project is also part a trend of expanding and improving walkable and bikeable infrastructure in the Capital Region.
In April, Governor Kathy Hochul joined local officials for the opening of the Albany Skyway, a more than $3 million project to turn a lightly travelled interstate ramp into an elevated park.
Democratic Mayor Kathy Sheehan tells WAMC the city is undergoing an effort to build out its biking infrastructure.
“The Skyway is one really important piece of it. It was built in anticipation of the new Livingston Rail Bridge, which is coming. Every time we make an investment, when we redo Clinton Square here (in downtown Albany), it's going to include bike infrastructure. We are building out the infrastructure that is important to build out, so we can have more opportunity for people to bike, whether it's for pleasure to work or just to get exercise.”
The project is also part of a larger statewide effort to expand outdoor recreational activities during the recent hiking and biking boom in New York, according to Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez.
“We've also got a fantastic connection here between what will be the pedestrian and bike (pedestrian) access off of the Livingston Avenue Bridge effort after it's built. Not only just to the Albany Skyway, but also to the Empire State Trail. The Empire State Trail lands right in here and it's going to be yet another connector. The Empire State Trail, as you all know, is about 750 miles. It runs from New York City through the Hudson and Champlain Valley to Canada and from Albany to Buffalo along the Erie Canal and it truly is one of the one of the great recreational opportunities that we have here in New York state.”
