NYSDOT Announces Completion of Glenridge Road Truck Turnaround in Glenville
Release Date: July 21, 2022
NYSDOT Announces Completion of Glenridge Road Truck Turnaround in Glenville
Truck Drivers Must Still Follow Posted Signs, Avoid Using Personal GPS Navigation
Parking Spaces Added for Access to Town of Glenville’s Nature Preserve
New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez today announced the completion of the new truck turnaround area along Glenridge Road immediately east of the Canadian Pacific Railway-owned railroad bridge in the Town of Glenville, Schenectady County. The newly paved area provides trucks and other overheight vehicles with ample space to turn around before striking the low-clearance overpass and is one of a series of measures the Department of Transportation is taking to enhance safety at this location and help reduce instances of too-tall vehicles striking the structure. The turnaround has been installed approximately 500 feet east of the railroad overpass for westbound vehicles, which is the direction of travel of the majority vehicles that have struck the bridge in recent years.
“With a stretch of nice weather, we were able to accelerate the work to complete this turnaround and now, if vehicles that are too-tall and overheight reach this turnaround area on Glenridge Road, they can safely maneuver and turn around and away from the bridge,” Commissioner Dominguez said. “I must stress that bridge strikes are 100 percent preventable. Operators of trucks and overheight vehicles must obey the multiple signs, beacons and pavement markings warning of the low bridge ahead, even before reaching the turnaround area, and they must use commercial-grade GPS navigation systems.
As part of this project, three parking spaces were added near the turnaround for motorists visiting the Town of Glenville’s nearby nature preserve. Striping around the spaces is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. When that work occurs, motorists should watch for workers and flaggers, and slow down and pay attention through the work zone.
In late 2021, the Department of Transportation announced a set of immediate and long-term plans to reduce the number of bridge strikes at the Glenridge Road overpass that included the construction of this vehicle turnaround area, as well as the installation of new flashing beacons and the eventual deployment of a state-of-the art electronic detection and active warning system. The flashing beacons, which are above and below low-clearance warning signs in advance of the bridge in both directions, were activated in January. These supplement 14 signs that were already in place in both directions — including nine advance signs in the westbound direction over an approximately three-quarter-of-a-mile stretch of the road — warning of the height of the bridge and pavement markings that are consistently refreshed over a 0.9-mile stretch of Glenridge Road warning truckers of the low clearance bridge just east of Hetcheltown Road.
The Department presented plans to the Glenville Town Board earlier this year highlighting preliminary designs for the electronic detection and active warning system. These plans call for two sets of detectors with two electronic message boards and two new flashing beacons for traffic in the westbound direction, with one set of each planned in the eastbound direction.
When an overheight vehicle travels underneath these detectors, the nearby beacons will flash and an electronic message board will warn the operator that their vehicle is too tall to fit underneath the bridge, which is posted with a vertical clearance of 10 feet, 11 inches. The system will also send an alert message to NYSDOT’s 24-hour Transportation Management Center.
Design of the detection system is expected to be completed this summer and construction is expected to begin in 2023. In the meantime, NYSDOT continues to alert drivers of overheight vehicles that consumer GPS and mobile phone mapping systems do not include warnings for bridge heights, which puts them at risk of collisions. Commercial-grade GPS systems do account for and include height, weight and other road restrictions.
The Department continues to partner and meet with local and state elected officials and the Trucking Association of New York to ensure that truckers use proper routes.
Senator Jim Tedisco said, “The Glenridge Road rail bridge has become notorious for scores of truck bridge strikes that has become a serious public safety concern and impacted local taxpayers when trucks clog-up traffic because of near misses as well as bridge strikes. Completion of construction of a truck turnaround to help mitigate these bridge strikes and traffic snarls is a positive step in the right direction and we are cautiously optimistic as work continues to help improve safety at the bridge. I appreciate the DOT listening to our concerns and taking action. I want to thank the public for reaching out to me with their impassioned interest and suggestions on helping reduce bridge strikes on the road. We look forward to the completed program next year and we’ll be keeping an eye on the efficacy of the changes and respond if more needs to be done.”
Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh said, “It is welcome news to see completion of the Glenridge Road truck turnaround in Glenville by the state Department of Transportation. This small, but notorious bridge on Glenridge Road has wreaked major havoc on oversized trucks for years. It has taken many years of advocating for proposed solutions to get to this point and I am hopeful that this long-awaited turnaround will help to mitigate damage to the bridge and trucks, and delays in the everyday life of commuters.”
Glenville Town Supervisor Christopher Koetzle said, “I appreciate the Department's efforts in their pursuit to address this issue that has vexed motorists for so long and I have high hopes that this will address our safety concerns relating to the bridge strikes. I am particularly pleased and thankful to the Department for providing our much anticipated parking area for residents to use the nature preserve and did all of this without any impact to the preserve, itself.”
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