Cortland will again ask the state to restrict large commercial trucks from using Tompkins Street, an effort to ease congestion and prepare for Main Street’s future conversion to two-way traffic.
“How you gonna do that?” Public Works and Public Safety Board Chair Pat O’Mara asked Cortland Mayor Scott Steve at the board’s Tuesday meeting.
Pretty much all the city can do is ask the State Department of Transportation, Steve said.
The public works board unanimously voted to support making the request, which the city also tried in 2022. The state said no then, Steve said.
“The trucks should go up (Interstate) 81 to (Route) 281 and go through Ithaca that way,” Steve said. “They’re coming through the city, and they’re blocking up the traffic.”
On Interstate 81, they would use exit 54, formerly exit 12, not exit 52, formerly exit 11, near the Riverside Plaza, Steve said.
Tompkins Street carries Route 13, a state highway, past the SUNY Cortland campus and through downtown, a common route for trucks between Interstate 81 and Interstate 86 just outside Elmira, and Ithaca in between.
At Owego Street, the road saw an average of 16,141 vehicles a day in 2023, up from 15,360 in 2022 and 13,569 in 2021.
Tompkins Street leads onto Port Watson Street, feeding into the Port Watson Bridge which, Steve said, isn’t built for heavy truck traffic. However, traffic on Port Watson near Pomeroy Street was down to 9,104 vehicles a day in 2023 from 10,267 in 2022 and 9,982 in 2021.
