Fight over bridge project ends
By: Meghan Backus
Updated: December 18, 2007
Thousands of people travel on it every day. Now the fight over a detour for a bridge project appears to be settled. The state department of transportation has agreed to a shorter detour. On top of that, the DOT will be sweetening the deal for residents and businesses that wanted a temporary bridge instead of a detour.
Victor Fire Chief Bob Green is still worried about the detour. He says the detour around the bridge on Route 96 could take his crews three extra minutes.
“Fire doubles every minute,” he said. “That’s the problem with this.”
But under the new agreement with the DOT, they'll be getting some help starting in March.
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The DOT has agreed to pay the Farmington Volunteer Fire Department up to $175 for each truck dispatched to Victor. Firefighters from Victor will still be responding to those calls, but they’ll be driving the detour from
There’s also a second detour route for large trucks to take. It extends from
“With this, the separation of the two of them, the cars and the trucks, there should be a lighter amount of traffic traveled on the two ways," Green said.
Less traffic is good for the fire department, but maybe not for businesses in the area. For Scott Walker, owner of
“Us being a seasonal business, we were very concerned because of our location to the bridge we're farthest from detours," he said.
His business is located just east of the bridge, and
“We just have to do what we do,”
Drivers coming through the area can expect detours to start in March and end sometime in September.
