The Colonie Town Board authorized two resolutions related to the Boght Road-Columbia Street traffic study at its Thursday, Dec. 17, meeting.
In a 5-to-2 vote, the board adopted a resolution to allow Supervisor Paula Mahan to execute an engineering agreement with Creighton Manning Engineers, LLP. Later in the evening, the board adopted a resolution with a 4-to-3 vote to enter into an agreement with Clough, Harbour and Associates.
The project is expected to serve two purposes. First, it will address improvements to the Route 9 corridor, as per the recommendation of town officials, the Capital District Transportation Committee, the Capital District Transit Authority and the New York State Department of Transportation, and second, it will address larger developments planned for the area.
According to a memorandum from January, Involving CDTA, NYSDOT and CDTC is necessary because Route 9 is an important regional arterial. Future improvements should be made with consideration of the CDTC New Visions Plan, NYSDOT’s operations planning, and CDTA’s regional transit planning.
A 2005 Generic Environmental Impact Study called for an evaluation of the widening of Route 9 near Boght Road-Columbia Street and the need for a traffic signal near the Route 9/Latham Auto Park Drive/Old Loudon Road intersection, although CDTC and NYSDOS stated they do not feel adding lanes would be cost effective and other off-site improvements would be preferable, the report reads.
The rate of traffic north and south bound on Route 9 during peak hours were studied to see what improvements were preferable.
Mark Sargent, an associate at Creighton Manning Engineers said the firm was hired to look for more palatable solutions and conduct some technical studies related to the project.
He said that the town is working with a GEIS study that is 20 years old, and updating information about traffic patterns would be beneficial for a number of reasons, including calculating costs associated with traffic and mitigation fees.
Sargent said the town and Creighton Manning have had agreements spanning three years to help update the GEIS.
`We’re trying to identify a long-term vision for infrastructure in the area. And how does it accommodate the different land uses proposals and potential development,` Sargent said. `We are hearing about some specific issues that town wants us to look into.`
He said part of the work is to help find alternatives to making Route 9 wider, since that proposal was not met with support from the department of transportation, and Creighton Manning is working closely with Clough, Harbor and Associates to work on the project.
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