Meadowbrook Bridge Shut Down, Drawing Access Concerns

A Tentative Schedule Says Access Will Be Restored in the Fall of 2027, Locals Say Too Late

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
GILBERTSVILLE

On September 2, the Village of Gilbertsville announced on Facebook that the village’s main bridge, the Meadowbrook Bridge on County Highway 4, would be shut down for safety concerns. That makes for the third closed bridge in the village of just over 300 people, as of the 2020 census.

The village announcement said, “This is a full closure—no vehicles or pedestrians. Expected through Oct 2027 (subject to change).” The bridge is a short one, without lanes.

The closure came after an inspection by the New York State Department of Transportation “revealed significant structural deterioration that merited the bridge’s closure,” according to NYSDOT Regional Spokesperson Daniel Scharfenberger.

“Further questions about the bridge should be directed to Otsego County, which owns the structure and is responsible for its maintenance,” Scharfenberger said.

Otsego County Administrator Steve Wilson told AllOtsego the bridge “has had a weight limit restriction for several years due to loss of parts of the steel superstructure.” Therefore, he said, the bridge has been inspected annually by NYSDOT.

“At the latest inspection, there was additional erosion of steel that resulted in a recommended posting of no more than two tons on that bridge” and NYSDOT “will not allow a bridge to remain open if its weight rating drops below three tons,” according to Wilson.

Some residents say the timeline of 2027 for fixes is too long. In a letter presented to the Otsego County Board of Representatives at their October 1 meeting, Gilbertsville Mayor Aidan Woishnis expressed concern about emergency service access with “a two-year gap on a primary ingress/egress for Gilbertsville.” Woishnis wrote that the closure adds five minutes to trips, which “may not seem like much, but in emergency medicine it’s associated with more than a 50% drop in survival odds for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (≤6 minutes vs >10 minutes).”

He also wrote that in modern building fires “rooms can flash over in ~3–5 minutes, shrinking the escape/survivability window by ~85–90%.”

Woishnis requested the county provide interim access within 30 days, accelerated construction by 2026 “if practicable,” using “emergency pro-curement” to speed up the process, and provide transparency all throughout.

At the Board of Representatives meeting, Village Improvement Society of Gilbertsville Secretary Teresa Winchester read aloud the group’s concerns. She said funding for a replacement was secured in 2023 for 2025 construction. “Obviously, that did not happen,” Winchester read. The group’s letter said the 2027 construction date was “unacceptable.” The group said the bridge closure is having a negative impact on local businesses.

In an interview, Administrator Wilson told AllOtsego “as it stands right now, the project will be bid out for construction in the summer of ‘26. Construction can’t really start until the summer of ‘27, and generally takes three to six months to complete for a project of this size.”

He added that the county has been trying to procure funds to fix the bridge since 2016, and the 2023 New York Bridge grant required “extensive regulatory review” for any environmental and historical issues.

“The protracted timeline from award to construction is because of that regulatory review,” Wilson said.

To address the bridge issues, the village will need outside funding. Gilbertsville’s annual budget is about $318,000.00. Woishnis told AllOtsego in an interview that one of the other two bridges out of service, one on Green Street that serves residential areas, would cost as much as $1 million to fix. Another bridge on Mill Street has been out for “nearly a decade” due to flooding, Woishnis said. The recently closed Meadowbrook Bridge would cost far more to fix.

“My biggest thing is the safety factor around all of this,” Woishnis said.

The issue will be discussed at the county board’s October 16, 9 a.m. Public Works Committee meeting in Board Chambers at the county offices in Cooperstown.