Reconstruction and stabilization work has begun on Tonawanda Creek Road (CR 559) in the Town of Clarence as part of a multi-million dollar project being administered by the Niagara County Department of Public Works.  The project includes three sites, two on Tonawanda Creek Road in Niagara County and one in Erie County in the Town of Clarence.  The Erie County project involves the reconstruction and stabilization of the portion of Tonawanda Creek Road that failed in June 2014 and led to the closure of the road to through traffic.  The Clarence portion makes up approximately $2.1 million of the project’s $7.2 million overall cost, which is funded through a combination of federal and state aid.

“The contractor was able to get an early-season jump on the Tonawanda Creek Road project in Clarence and has been taking advantage of the weather to clear, excavate and begin the soil stabilization process at the site. Road slides pose unique challenges and these roads are very expensive to reconstruct, despite the fact that the portion of Erie County’s Tonawanda Creek Road being reconstructed is only about 900 feet long,” said Erie County Commissioner of Public Works William Geary, Jr. “With the weather as cooperative as it has been, the construction schedule is moving at a good pace and, weather permitting, the Erie County portion of the project should be completed in the spring.”

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz added, “Due to the complexity of stabilizing the creek bank and then rebuilding the road, we knew the project would be costly and would take some time to complete but we said it would get done and now it is happening. By comparison, if we were to spend $2 million on mill and overlay road projects elsewhere in the county we could repair eight miles of road rather than 900 feet.”

Approximately 550 linear feet of full embankment reconstruction will be required for the 900-foot project, utilizing dry soil mixing to stabilize weak subsurface soils so that a new geosynthetically reinforced embankment can be constructed above. New drainage will be installed throughout.  Project Contractor Union Concrete & Construction Corp. began work last month and the soil mixing process, weather permitting, is scheduled to begin next week.

For more information:

On the Erie County Department of Public Works, visit http://www2.erie.gov/dpw/

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