To the Editor:

I’ve only lived in Potsdam 49 years. For at least that length of time people have been talking about a “rooftop highway” with a pot of gold at its end.

Congressman Bob McEwen talked about building the highway during his 1964 campaign. Assemblyman Dan Haley talked about it in his early ‘70s campaign. And lo and behold, people are still talking about it.

I feel fairly confident in saying that pigs will fly before the highway is built. This particular dream is dead, and it should be given a decent burial.

Instead, we should advocate for improvements to Rt. 11, which, by coincidence, runs right across the top of New York State.

New construction would be costly, rebuilding, less so. According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, “a new 2-lane undivided road would cost about $2-$3 million per mile in rural areas...a new 4-lane highway -- $4-$6 million per mile in rural and suburban areas...a new 6-lane Interstate highway - about $7 million per mile in rural areas...”

But the same organization cites the cost to mill and resurface a 4-lane road as about $1.25 million per mile.

Maintenance would cost even less.

Last summer, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported the following: “Based on aggregate highway spending reported in 2009, the average statewide cost of maintaining a lane mile [one mile one lane wide] was $13,841. Cities and counties tend to have higher costs per mile of road maintained ($21,966 and $20,260, respectively), followed by villages ($18,536), while towns tend to spend the least per lane mile ($9,985).

“Based on aggregate municipal highway spending in each county, the cost of maintaining a lane mile ranges from $35,504 in Westchester County to $5,634 in Lewis County.”

R.I.P., rooftop highway. Let’s focus instead on rebuilding and maintaining the roads we have.

Betsy A. Baker

Potsdam