Though we have had little rain this fall, the good weather has been helpful to those reconstructing the Chautauqua Lake Bridge.

As you head east over the lake from the Stow side on I-86, you can see the open, raw girders where a substantial amount of concrete decking has been removed. There has also been a lot of new concrete decking laid–especially on the Bemus side.

There had been some concern about the potential movement of steel as the weight of the old concrete was removed. There is always some movement when this is done as there is some flex in all steel.

In crossing the bridge, you may have observed the various measuring devices on tripods that have been positioned there. They have been measuring the movement or rebound of the steel.

My understanding is that all the measurements have been well within tolerances for structural steel like that of the girders underpinning the Chautauqua Lake Bridge. The DOT has been diligent in measuring this. Apparently, a model of the bridge and its weight-bearing characteristics was actually built to replicate the process of removing the weight of concrete during reconstruction.

As to what you will see as you cross the bridge this winter–not much will change. The season for laying concrete decking is pretty much over. It can only be laid within certain temperature tolerances, and with cold weather coming…that will end the pouring of concrete decking for this season.

That does not mean that all construction work will cease. There is still a lot of steel and concrete chipping repair going on beneath the surface of the bridge. It is expected that this will continue at least until the snow or cold shuts it down.

The traveling public on the highway can see little of this subsurface work. Even if you pass below the bridge in a boat, you can see very little because of the temporary construction subdeck that has been installed.

One final note on the bridge. I don’t believe that there is another bridge in Upstate New York like the one we have which spans our lake. There are bridges to Canada over the Niagara River and on the St. Lawrence, and some other large bridges that cross the Hudson River.

But, there is nothing quite like the Chautauqua Lake Bridge in all of Upstate.

I am sure that there are truckers headed east to New York who get to Erie, Pennsylvania and then say: “What the heck, it may take a bit more fuel going through the hills, but I think I’ll take I-86 so that I can see that incredible view of the lake from that bridge!”

Maybe that was in the heads of people like Bill Hennessy, the Wellsville guy who headed up the DOT in Albany at the time of its construction. I can just see Hennessy telling the DOT engineers at that time–“We are going to build a big bridge over a magnificent lake in the area of the state that I came from–so make it beautiful!”

And, they did!

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.