MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - Mount Kisco really needs to put the pedal to the metal when it comes to keeping the public fully up to date on developments in the Preston Way Bridge situation, frustrated residents told the Village Board recently.
The 72-year-old span was ordered closed in early December by the state Department of Transportation for safety reasons.
“For a vital artery connecting Route 117, Kisco Avenue, the Saw Mill River Parkway, and a major shopping area, that is not a minor inconvenience -- it is a serious, long-term disruption to daily life and the local economy,” one of them, Philip DuBon, had written in a social media post.
After reiterating that stand at the board’s Jan. 5 meeting, he insisted that he wasn’t questioning the need to close “an unsafe bridge.”
“Safety has to come first. But safety does not excuse a lack of urgency, planning, or communication,” explained DuBon, who happens to be an applicant for a spot on the Leonard Park Committee.
Next up was resident Nicholas McDermott, who alleged that communication from the village has been “dismal.”
Insisting that Preston Way “should be on every (board) agenda until that bridge is complete,” he asked the village to create a website with “just basic information, so everyone knows that we’re moving forward.”
“Bridges do not become unusable overnight. They deteriorate slowly and they deteriorate to the point where they are no longer functioning because we don’t do anything and that’s what’s happened,” said McDermott.
The village notified the public of the situation on Dec. 3, the day the bridge was closed, and posted a statement on its website on Monday, Dec. 8 assuring the public that it'd been in contact with state and county officials, engineering and traffic consultants, first responders, local business owners, residents, and the school district’s transportation department.
“Please know that the safety and well-being of Mount Kisco’s residents and visitors are paramount,” it wrote, promising to “update the public with further information when it is available.”
The board held an executive session on Dec. 22, at which “potential litigation, contract negotiations, personnel, and real estate matters” were to be discussed, according to the official notification.
Preston Way was reportedly a “major topic,” said DuBon. Village Manager Ed Brancati confirmed that last week.
The DOT had lowered the bridge’s weight load to five tons last March, but after subsequent inspections, reduced that to below three tons.
That meant the bridge had to be closed to all users, including pedestrians and bicyclists.
“One statement on Dec. 8, then silence,” DuBon complained, noting that Preston Way was not on the board’s agenda that night.
“That doesn’t feel like transparency. It feels like the most important issue in this town is being handled off to the side,” he said.
Mayor J. Michael Cindrich was apparently taken aback by any implication that the village is sitting on information.
While there are certain things he couldn’t legally reveal at this point, Cindrich said he’d been conducting research, answering emails and phone calls, and was being “as transparent” as he could.
Both DuBon and resident Lou Terlizzi said they’d spoken with several merchants who’d reported a significant drop in business lately.
(Whether that was because of the traffic situation or because of unrelated economic factors, no one could say.)
There are other concerns.
“People who are thinking about buying a home or business here read the papers, they see the posts, they talk to friends, if what they hear that the bridge will be closed for years and traffic is a mess, some of them are going to look elsewhere,” said DuBon, fearing that property values and the tax base will suffer.
Insisting he wasn’t out to attack anyone personally, DuBon didn’t let state leaders off the hook either.
Assemblyman Chris Burdick (D-Bedford) and state Sen. Peter Harckham have both pressed the MTA to help the village develop a plan to fund and expedite the bridge’s replacement.
Brancati said the lawmakers been “helpful throughout this process,” by writing to the MTA and coordinating meetings.
“We appreciate their continued support,” he told Halston Media.
Urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to jump in, DuBon said: “She was elected to serve all New Yorkers, and a critical bridge in northern Westchester being closed for up to two years should be on her radar."
To be fair, the state did provide $5 million in Bridge NY funding for Preston Way, Brancati points out.
DuBon had a long wish list.
Number One, a “realistic” timeline with key milestones such as design completion, DOT and MTA approvals, public hearings, bidding, and construction start and a “target” completion.
Even if these are estimates, “just having a little road map will build a lot of trust with the community and our merchants,” he said.
Secondly, “regular” scheduled updates after “significant” meetings, both on the village’s website and through emails and/or texts.
DuBon called for “visible interim traffic measures,” such as “do not block the box” markings and “targeted enforcement at the worst chokepoints and overused side streets.”
“People need to see that the day-to-day problems are being actively managed,” he said.
Lastly, DuBon wants the village to proactively meet with businesses and property owners “to hear how they are being affected and to explain what the village, the state, and the MTA are doing on their behalf.”
Bridge Ownership
Also speaking up was resident Lesly Limas who was confused about the bridge’s ownership.
“The MTA or DOT would love to tell you that we own the bridge, but we don’t,” Brancati told her, adding: “Nobody can prove that; that’s just a fact.”
If the MTA has stated that the village owns the bridge, it is basing it on a bridge inventory spreadsheet provided by the DOT., Brancati explained.
There's no record or documentation that supports the contention that the village owns the bridge, he told Halston Media last week.
The DOT listed Mount Kisco as the owner because, he explained, “inspection reports have to go to somebody responsible, so the default is to list the community in which the structure is located, but that’s no indication of who owns it.”
There are a few things the village does know.
Brancati has pointed out repeatedly that in 1935 the Public Service Commission – citing the public’s “welfare” -- ordered the elimination of dangerous railroad grade crossings and the construction of bridges on Main Street (formerly South Street), Lieto Drive, and Preston Way (formerly Hubbels Drive).
The railroad tracks then belonged to the New York Central Railroad, which is now the MTA and Metro-North.
The only documentation the village was able to unearth is a set of 1950 construction plans from the DOT for all three projects. Those were signed by folks from the state Department of Public Works (which would become the DOT), engineers from the New York Central Railroad, and the PSC, Brancati said.
On the plans was the PSC’s order number from 1935.
But does that mean that the state built everything? He wasn’t sure.
However, the documents did contain a “division of maintenance” for all three crossings that assigned responsibilities for different parts of the different structures to either the village, the MTA, or the DOT.
On the Radar
The bridge has been on the village’s radar for some time.
In 2018, it secured a grant of $1.9 million to do some rehab work. In 2024, after subsequent engineering reports recommended a total replacement, the DOT “invited” the village to apply again for Bridge NY funding with updated estimates.
It did and was awarded $5 million, after promising to forego the previous grant.
On top of that, the village wrangled an agreement from the MTA to waive an estimated $850,000 for so-called “forced labor” account.
(Federal rules and regulations require anyone working near, on, over, or adjacent to railroad facilities to put money into a account that covers the hiring of flaggers, inspectors, and so forth, who “make sure that the tracks, the travelers are safe,” Brancati has said.)
In 2022, the village borrowed $3.6 million to put toward the repair or replacement of the bridge.
The actual cost of the project can’t be determined until it goes out for bid, Brancati emphasized, expressing frustration that the MTA has “never been willing to cough up its fair share.”
“Whether we replace it, whether we just let it go, whatever was decided, there was always going to be a period of time that the bridge was going to be closed and the traffic detoured,” he said in December.
The village had been asking for a sit-down with the DOT on detour plans since October, Brancati said.
Following the closure, the village was forced to inform the state on Dec. 4 that it was going ahead with the necessary work anyway.
The DOT has, however, stepped up to make some “initial” adjustments in the traffic signals along the detour route, Brancati said. Cameras have been installed in order to collect more data before final – albeit temporary – signalization changes are made.
The village wants the DOT to also look at traffic signals further south and north along Routes 117 and Route 133.
DOT improvements planned for this spring at places where Route 117 (North Bedford Road) intersects with Preston Way, Barker Street, and Route 133 (Main Street), are “going to have to wait now,” Brancati said.
As of press time, the village was still waiting for the DOT to confirm that it understood that.
“I think they got the message, but that’s where we’re at,” he said.
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