NORWICH - County highway officials should learn sometime this week how much money the state’s transportation department will set aside for upgrading state Route 12 to a four lane highway along its 84-mile stretch from Binghamton to Utica.
The information will be made available to corporate and public members of the Route 12 Task Force, which includes state highway representatives, at a meeting June 24 at Commerce Chenango’s offices at the Eaton Center in Norwich.
“There seems to be a new push - even from NYSDOT - in regards to the Route 12 project. That’s a good sign right there,” Chenango County Department of Public Works Director Randy Gibbon said.
The task force, formed in 2000, consists of members from Chenango, Broome, Madison and Oneida counties. According to past news reports, the federal government has granted $8 million to the project since then. NYSDOT picked up the tab for consultants Barton & Loguidice PC of Syracuse to do phase studies. Phase one, finished in 2002 for $100,000, suggested $35 million worth of short-term safety-related improvements. The second phase, begun in 2002 at a cost of $250,000, will be revealed next week.
Gibbon said it would identify long-term economic enhancements and “offer a true justification that there is a need.”
None of the desired projects have been completed so far, however ideas from the task force were incorporated into previously initiated projects involving the roadway in Binghamton and in Utica, Gibbon said.
The federal government appropriated $5 million in 2003 and $3 million in 2004. The specific use for the funds were to be determined by the state transportation department in conjunction with affected localities and the task force.
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