State Department of Transportation Announces Work to Begin on Glenridge Road Truck Turnaround

Contact: Bryan Viggiani, (518) 457-6400
Release Date: June 28, 2022

State Department of Transportation Announces Work to Begin on Glenridge Road Truck Turnaround

New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez today announced that construction is getting underway on a 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 paved area will provide 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 will be 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, and is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

"Safety is always the top priority of the State Department of Transportation and we are working to do all we can to help prevent the all-too-common occurrence of trucks striking the Glenridge Road overpass, which creates a hazardous situation for motorists and causes needless traffic delays," Commissioner Dominguez said. "This new turnaround will allow truck drivers to safely change directions and is part of our comprehensive effort to reduce bridge strikes at this location. But drivers must do their part too. Bridge strikes are 100 percent preventable and operators of overheight vehicles need to drive safely, pay attention to the multiple warning signs that are already in place on this road and use commercial-grade GPS navigation systems."

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 installation of new flashing beacons, the construction of a vehicle turnaround area 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 recently presented plans to the Glenville Town Board showcasing 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 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 phone mapping systems do not account for bridge heights, which puts them at risk of collisions. Commercial-grade GPS systems do account for 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.

During the work to construct the truck turnaround area, motorists should watch for traffic on Glenridge Road to be reduced to a single alternating lane as needed controlled by flaggers during weekdays, weather permitting.

Senator Jim Tedisco said, "Being cautiously optimistic, we welcome the fact that action is being taken to help reduce the notorious bridge strikes at the Glenridge Road rail bridge, which 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. 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, "For the past few years I have worked alongside my partners in government at the state and local level to identify and advocate for solutions to the consistent bridge strikes at the Glenridge Road bridge. This is a matter of safety for residents of Glenville and surrounding areas, and it is clear that flashing lights and signs just aren't cutting it. I am pleased that the New York State Department of Transportation is taking necessary steps to further mitigate the possibility of future strikes and look forward to the completion of this long overdue project."

Glenville Town Supervisor Christopher Koetzle said, "I want to thank the state DOT for their continued attention to this problem and their hard work in delivering solutions that will hopefully result in fewer bridge strikes. I also appreciate that they worked to ensure that there were no impacts on the town's nature preserve while deploying these strategies to help make travel through the corridor safer."

For up-to-date travel information, call 511, visit www.511NY.org, or download the free 511NY mobile app.

Follow New York State DOT on Twitter: @NYSDOT. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/NYSDOT. For tweets from New York State DOT Region 1 (covering the Capital Region), follow @NYSDOTAlbany.

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