Herkimer County town to use federal funding for bridge repair

STARK, N.Y. — The Herkimer County town of Stark will use a federal grant of more than $669,000 to upgrade and repair the “flood-prone” Route 168 bridge.

The bridge spans a tributary of Otsquago Creek.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) hazard-mitigation grant program (HMGP) allocated the funding, according to a news release from U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) that Gillibrand’s office distributed on Friday.

Grants from the program pay for “necessary” safety improvements for bridges in “high-risk” flood areas.

“It is critical that our federal government provides the necessary funding for repairs to such an important bridge in Herkimer County,” Gillibrand said in the news release. “These upgrades will help keep our communities safe, and they will make sure we are better prepared when the next big storm comes to our area.”

The federal government selected the Route 168 span and other bridges because of their “high susceptibility to scour, their small inadequate openings, and their foundation types,” according to the release.

FEMA’s HMGP provides funding under Section 404 of the Stafford Act, the federal-disaster law that supplies aid to states and localities to implement long-term resiliency measures after a major disaster, the lawmakers said.

These grants seek to reduce the loss of life and property due to natural disasters and to enable implementation of mitigation measures during the immediate recovery from a disaster.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com