#GlenmontRoundabout #DiegoCagara #SpotlightNews
GLENMONT — Residents can learn more about the upcoming roundabout project during an open house and public workshop scheduled to take place at Glenmont Elementary School, located at 328 U.S. Rte. 9W on Thursday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m.
A 30-minute open house will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the public workshop at 6:30 p.m. This workshop, the second of three planned with regards to the roundabout’s design phase, includes both a formal presentation and Q&A session. The first public workshop was held back on June 26, 2018, with nearly 100 residents in attendance and the third has yet to be announced.
The $4.9 million project will transform the existing four-way intersection, where Feura Bush and Glenmont roads meet Route 9W, into a roundabout to reduce both traffic congestion and the frequency of right-angle and head-on crashes which occur there. Other improvements will include new crosswalks, rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, and establishing 2,800 feet of sidewalk which would connect pedestrians and cyclists from the Glenmont Elementary School and Vagele Lane.
The Jan. 17 workshop’s presentation will feature project concept designs developed by Albany-based engineering firm Creighton Manning, the consultant retained by the town, and showcase how public input received during last June’s meeting was incorporated into those designs. Town staff and consultants from Creighton Manning are expected to be on hand to speak with residents who wish to learn more about it.
The impacts the roundabout’s construction may have on nearby businesses is expected to be addressed during the presentation.
During the Dec. 21, 2018 Industrial Development Agency meeting, Bethlehem’s Planning Division Director Robert Leslie said, “We’ve been meeting with several of the area’s businesses by the intersection — like Town Squire [Plaza], gas stations, CVS — to talk to them about potential changes and driving access and making improvements for safer turns in and out of those businesses, as the roundabout project is under design. We’re doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work with businesses before moving ahead with the public meeting.”
The project was unanimously approved by the Bethlehem Town Board in early May 2018. Eighty percent of the project’s cost, or $3.9 million, will be funded through a grant by the Transportation Alternatives Program, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (TAP-CMAQ) of the state DOT and the town would pay the other 20 percent or $975,000.
Construction on the project is scheduled to start in 2020 and wrap up no later than 2021.
