Crown Point, New York - Cracks have been found in the new, nearly $75-million Lake Champlain Bridge.
No one who relies on the bridge wants to believe the rumors that the bridge had cracks in its concrete pillars. That's the very thing that doomed the bridge it replaced.
But on Tuesday the New York State Department of Transportation confirmed the rumors were true.
On a walk across the bridge Tuesday, Bill and Chrystal Scheuer say they were concerned about cracks in the bridge's concrete support pillars.
"We want the job done right. We don't want to have to worry about crossing the bridge everyday. We just went through that with the old bridge," says Bill Scheuer.
That 80-year-old bridge was closed in 2009 due to serious cracks in the pillars and demolished. A new bridge was built at a cost of $76-million.
Community members tell me soon after the concrete was poured cracks were spotted and that's when rumors started.
We decided to check the pillars but our untrained eyes didn't spot any cracks. But the New York State Department of Transportation confirms they are there.
It calls the cracks "normal" in new concrete and says those cracks "do not affect the safety or structural integrity of the bridge."
"I don't know about that," says Chrystal Scheuer.
"I'm not sure you can believe what New York State says," says Bill Scheuer.
That's because the Scheuer's and many other people were caught off guard by the sudden shutdown of the old bridge.
"They kept telling us it was fine, it was fine and then come to find out it was destroyed, deteriorated," says Bill Scheuer.
The Scheuer's says come summer they will use their boat to try to check out the cracks which should be there. The DOT says the cracks don't need to be repaired.
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