Walkway Over the Hudson - Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge

On Monday 12 November our CNE tour planning group made a dry run over the route for 2008. We spent almost 2 hours out on the big bridge with Dick Coller from the Walkway group. It was a chilly day with very little wind and the river was like a mirror. Lets hope the weather is that nice when we go back in April.

Bernie Rudberg

Note from:

Fred Schaeffer, Chairman
Walkway Over the Hudson

Walkway Over the Hudson will hold a public informational meeting on Wednesday night, January 9th, 2008 at the Grand Hotel on Market Street in Poughkeepsie. The purpose of the meeting is two-fold:
* to inform the public of the details of the plan to convert the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge into the world's longest pedestrian bridge by 2009.
* to get input from the public into the design of the finished pedestrian park (walkway and bike path, etc.)

The meeting is jointly sponsored by NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. They are the lead state agency for this project.

* From 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. designers and engineers will be available to discuss the proposed plans.
* A half-hour presentation begins at 7:00 p.m.
* Open House with more discussions will follow presentation at 7:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.
(refreshments will be served)
P.S. I ENCOURAGE ALL SUPPORTERS OF THE THIS PROJECT TO ATTEND SO THAT PUBLIC OFFICIALS IN ATTENDANCE UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS WIDESPREAD SUPPORT FOR IT TO HAPPEN.

Please forward to your friends and associates so they might come too. Thank you for your help.

Bernie Rudberg

Wednesday evening we went to the public meeting about the Walkway on the Poughkeepsie RR bridge. They expected about 50 to 100 people but 485 showed up. The engineering group explained the plans and options along with the projected costs. The entire walkway project would be less than half the cost of removing the bridge.
The Walkway group already has almost $3 million lined up with more coming. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2008. The future plans include a $14 million income increase in the local economy from the tourist traffic on the bridge.

Tonights meeting happened to be on the same day as Governor Spitzers State of the State address. He mentioned the Walkway project and announced that it will become a New York State Park and the plans call for opening as part of the 400 year celebration of Henry Hudson sailing up the river in 1609. By September of 2009 we should be able to hike or ride our bikes across the big bridge.

Bernie Rudberg

Wednesday evening we went to the public meeting about the Walkway on the Poughkeepsie RR bridge. They expected about 50 to 100 people but 485 showed up. The engineering group explained the plans and options along with the projected costs. The entire walkway project would be less than half the cost of removing the bridge.
The Walkway group already has almost $3 million lined up with more coming. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2008. The future plans include a $14 million income increase in the local economy from the tourist traffic on the bridge.

Tonights meeting happened to be on the same day as Governor Spitzers State of the State address. He mentioned the Walkway project and announced that it will become a New York State Park and the plans call for opening as part of the 400 year celebration of Henry Hudson sailing up the river in 1609. By September of 2009 we should be able to hike or ride our bikes across the big bridge.

Bernie Rudberg

Thanks for the news, Bernie. It's good hearing what happened for those who weren't able to make it. Looking forward to walking over that bad boy soon![/img]

I stand by the fact that there's not enough money on earth to make this happen....to do the concrete deck, elevators, railings, lights, etc, thats gonna be a whole lot more than 25 mil...nothing was said about repairing the fire damaged steel, painting???

This will only happen if some rich guy picks up the tab......

when trout fly....

work safe

Derail

That's an interesting point.

In the study that they did on the integrity of the structure, I'm sure they must have spent some time studying the part of the bridge that burned.

The things I've read suggest access to the bridge at Washington Street.

If that's the case, are they going to control access somehow? As has been previously discussed, that's not the safest part of Poughkeepsie at night, or during the day. I'm not sure I'd want to use the rail trail between Morgan Lake and Washington Street unless the access was controlled.

Elevator seems like a silly idea if they can access the bridge from Parker Ave/Wash St.

The other thing no one is talking about is west side access. I was under the impression that you are not currently able to get to the bridge without either trespassing, or climbing a steep hill. Has some arrangement been worked out with CH?

I would imagine that for the group to make their 2009 goal, they must only be talking about completing the deck/walkway as far as the observation area currently near the middle of the bridge.

There were two elevators described. One at Washington St and later, a taller one from the park at the edge of the river.

I have been on the west end of the bridge a couple times. There is easy access from Haviland Road. It is a couple hundred yards from the road to the end of the bridge and it is level ground. No problem with hills there.

Security arrangements are anybody's guess.

Bernie Rudberg

I wish they would ditch the idea and rehab the bridge with a light rail link between a West Hudson Park & Ride and Metro North.

If you open that bridge to the public, you have to worry about jumpers. If you worry about jumpers, you have to put up a big fence to keep the crazys from flying. If you put up a fence, you ruin the view for the normal people out for a walk.

It's high up in the wind, there are only a few months of the year it would be hospitable to pedestrians. Put a shuttle train on the thing.

D/

Dieter wrote:If you open that bridge to the public, you have to worry about jumpers.

Why? You can't stop someone from killing themselves. You [em]can[/em] offer resources like a suicide hotline. But you can't stop people from ending their life. You'd have to outlaw everything heavy, everything sharp, everything pointy, everything high, everything poisonous, everything caustic, everything acidic, everything basic ..... Can I stop now?

That said, yes, it would be good to have the trolley between New Palz and Poughkeepsie back. Is there sufficient demand?

Video from the POughkeepsie journal about the bridge ( from the meeting I assume). http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps ... 006/NEWS01

Sounds real promising, I wouldn't mind seeing it completed.

Nice article in today's Albany Times Union about this worthy project.
Noel Weaver

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story. ... =2/17/2008

Eminent domain says remove all the new buildings that have been built along the former ROW and make it part of a new, truly high speed Boston to points west railroad!

Buildings on the ROW are only part of the problem. There are now miles of the Maybrook Line ROW with 24 inch water pipes just under the surface.

Bernie Rudberg

The only planned use for the bridge is for Walkway Over the Hudson. There is no rail use intended for the structure. Let's leave the fantasy stuff in the storybooks.