Decision clears the way for safer Route 11

The state Department of Transportation deserves praise for its decision to spend $6.3 million on upgrade and improvement of U.S. Route 11. This decision was made in the face of intense political pressure from St. Lawrence County. For reasons that continue to escape me, many county officials would prefer that the money be spent on engineering studies for a totally new interstate highway across the north country.

Those studies would reveal what we already know — that a new four-lane highway would be devastating to landowners in its path and to our rural environment. This new information would be added to the conclusions of previous studies of the interstate highway idea — that such a highway is not justified and not affordable. The DOT rose above the politics and based its decision on engineering and economics.

It’s noteworthy that St. Lawrence County’s obsession with the interstate highway idea has had a very high price, in that it caused the DOT to delay Route 11 improvements. If the county had embraced the DOT’s recommendations in 2008 when they were first unveiled, instead of clamoring for the rooftop highway, we would be driving on a safer and more efficient Route 11 today. Now, unfortunately, we won’t get the benefits of the $6.3 million until 2015.

Hopefully the money will be spent locally in the Canton-Potsdam area. Human lives are at risk here. Anyone who regularly travels Route 11 between Canton and Potsdam knows how frustrating and potentially dangerous it is, as long lines of vehicles line up behind a slowpoke. The extra lanes DOT plans to construct will make passing safer and traffic flow more smoothly. The construction will also create local jobs that are badly needed.

Richard Grover

Canton