Work south of Cold Spring should improve bicycling and walking
By Kevin E. Foley
Bicyclists, walkers and drivers should appreciate that the state Department of Transportation intends to resurface and upgrade the section of route 9D immediately south of Cold Spring this summer.
Town of Philipstown Supervisor Richard Shea said he was able to get the director of Region 8 (which includes the lower Hudson Valley), Todd Westhuis, to personally inspect the roadway and agree the work was warranted.
The supervisor had petitioned the agency in the past but an impromptu encounter at a meeting for the proposed Fjord Trail put the project on the director’s radar.
Shea said his office has received numerous complaints about the condition of the road and, in particular, the lack of shoulder space for bicyclists on a road designated by the state as a bikeway. Shea said he hoped that once the work was complete, it would provide “a more pleasurable experience for bicyclists, for drivers and for people who want to walk to Boscobel,” which on Saturdays during the summer is the site of the Cold Spring Farmers’ Market.
The cost of the work is not known yet. But Shea said the project will come under a routine DOT maintenance account and will not require a special appropriation.
