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The Enterprise — Michael Koff
The rail-trail bridge over Route 85 in Slingerlands buckled on July 12, the day this picture was taken.  Construction stopped that morning and on Tuesday, July 18, the Albany County Executive’s Office said in a statement that plans to shore up the bridge are being reviewed and work will likely begin as early as July 19. “The investigation into the cause of last week’s incident continues,” it said. The original century-old railroad bridge, which was 42 feet wide and so low that trucks frequently hit it, is to be replaced with a 14-foot wide bridge that is 15 feet, 6 inches above the roadway to meet state requirements. Albany County acquired the bridge in 2009 as part of its purchase of the nine-mile stretch of railway that runs between the Port of Albany and Voorheesville that became the Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail. Construction of the new bridge was to start in the summer of 2020 but was delayed by both the pandemic and litigation; the cost about doubled from the original $1.9 million because of legal challenges and having to relocate buried cable. The bridge had been put in place in late June and buckled when concrete decking was being poured on it. Bette & Cring Construction Group is the contractor.