Richard Moody is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the state Department of Transportation is detouring trucks through the city of Hudson, but failed to notify local officials. The detour would reroute trucks headed north on Route 9G to he Rip Van Winkle Bridge through an extended turnaround to avoid the construction zone on the approach to the bridge. Construction of a roundabout as part of the state’s $14.6 million Skywalk trail project linking the Olana and Thomas Cole historic sites is about to begin and is expected to continue into December. Local officials expressed surprise and anger August 7, saying they received no notice that the state planned to detour trucks through the city, which already has two busy state truck routes. The route chosen by the DOT would send trucks on Third Street to Columbia and from Columbia to Park Street. At the intersection of Park and Warren, trucks would then turn left, continue up to Worth Avenue and then turn right. The trucks would then make their way back out to Route 23 and head north to the bridge. The detour is about 9 miles long, said Hudson Public Works Superintendent Rob Perry. “We received no official communication from DOT about this,” Perry said. “DOT has not reached out to us at all about its plans for this project.” The city found out about the planned detour after the DOT posted signs redirecting drivers through Hudson. Assemblymember Didi Barrett set up a meeting between her office, Hudson Mayor Rick Rector, Perry and representatives from the state Department of Transportation after the unannounced placement of the signs. Following the meeting August 7, the department committed to work on a new detour route. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.