Agreement sought with MTA on Preston Way bridge repair costs

By MARTIN WILBUR

Frustration is mounting as Mount Kisco officials negotiate with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to share costs of the Preston Way bridge replacement, with several people criticizing the Village Board for failing to provide timely updates.

Last weekend, the village entered the second month of what will be a long-term closure of the span as local officials have been meeting with the MTA in hopes of reaching an agreement. Village Manager Ed Brancati said there have been no records uncovered showing that Mount Kisco owns the bridge and would be responsible for the full cost of the work despite multiple public comments by the MTA and the New York State Department of Transportation to the contrary.

Brancati maintained this week that the MTA is responsible for maintenance of the structure after uncovering records on file. 

The DOT also has no records that the village is the owner, although state inspection reports are sent to Mount Kisco because it has to be received by a responsible party, he said.

“That’s the village engineer and I going back to 2016, demonstrating that there’s joint responsibility,” Brancati said. “We don’t own the bridge, and the MTA would love to tell you we own the bridge but we don’t. Nobody can prove that. That’s just fact. No one can prove it.”

Brancati and village Attorney Jonathan Nelson have been designated to negotiate an agreement with the MTA that the municipality finds acceptable following a Dec. 22 advice of counsel session held by the Village Board. Brancati said that the talks were moving in “a better direction.”

“The village attorney and I have the tools necessary to have the conversation with the MTA to see if we can reach agreements that can be brought back to this board, that are acceptable to this board, that can be shared with the public, that can be shared with the village, and hopefully we can get to the point that allows us to have these agreements in place,” Brancati said.

Mayor J. Michael Cindrich said the state authorized in the 1950s that Mount Kisco’s three grade crossings be eliminated — at Lieto Drive, on Main Street and at Preston Way — to improve public safety. On the plans there is no signature attesting to a maintenance agreement for the Preston Way bridge, he said. The Public Service Commission had ordered the elimination of the crossings in 1935.

“What I’m saying is there’s not a legal document filed in the County Clerk’s Office or anywhere in the village that anybody acknowledges is a maintenance agreement,” Cindrich said. “It’s on a set of drawings and those drawings were not prepared by the Public Service Commission; they were prepared by the New York State DOT.”

Brancati said documents on file with the DOT’s predecessor, the New York State Department of Public Works, revealed that there are two approaches and the center span, which are held up by support columns. The railroad is responsible for the span between the two sets of support columns and the center structure itself and the village is responsible for the two approaches as well as the surface on top, Brancati said.

The last estimate from two years ago was $8.6 million for the bridge’s replacement, an all-inclusive figure that also took into account contingency and various soft costs, not just construction, Brancati said. An updated estimate will not be known until the project is put out to bid, which won’t happen until the DOT is satisfied with the plans, he said.

Mount Kisco is holding a $5 million state grant and $3.6 million that it borrowed for the work. It also secured about $850,000 last year from the MTA on the force labor agreement.

After first being flagged for repairs more than a decade ago, followed by a determination a few years ago that it needed to be replaced, the bridge was closed with less than two hours’ notice on Dec. 3. 

Meanwhile, detours and backups have frustrated motorists who have been forced to endure delays and inconvenience, particularly during peak traffic hours. At Monday evening’s Village Board meeting, residents urged for vastly improved communication from the village while efforts to resolve the ownership and shared responsibility dispute continue.

Philip DuBon of Prospect Street called for the village to provide frequent updates on the bridge closure. Eventually, the village should provide clear timelines with milestones, even when there will be changes, take more visible interim steps to ease traffic, share new information from agencies and state representatives and regularly engage with residents and business and property owners. On Monday, the last communication on the village’s website was Dec. 8.

DuBon said the future success of the village depends on how officials handle this crisis.

“For residents, merchants, property owners and people considering moving and investing here, the bridge is not a side issue,” DuBon said. “It affects safety, quality of life, businesses and the long-term reputation of Mount Kisco. I’m asking you, all of you, to treat Preston Way as a true top priority. That means every working day, and for every elected official, for the staff that support you, this project should be on the front burner, not once a month, not once a week, not when somebody shows up angry at a meeting but as a standing item that gets continued attention until the job is done.”

Nicholas McDermott of Spring Street said Monday’s agenda didn’t even list Preston Way as an item to be discussed. The bridge should be on every agenda until the work is done, he said.

“We should know exactly what’s going on and have a website dedicated to it,” McDermott said. “Everyone needs to be better as a team at communicating.”

On Mount Kisco’s Facebook page, the portion of the meeting that included the Preston Way bridge discussion was separated from the rest of the meeting tape and placed as a standalone post by Tuesday evening with the title “Preston Way Bridge Overview.”

Martin Wilbur has more than 30 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, and previously served as editor-in-chief of The Examiner.