Town officials are hoping to take a step in the direction of pedestrian safety in Guilderland Center by installing sidewalks in the hamlet.
The Guilderland Town Board on Tuesday, May 21, took the first step towards following through on hamlet residents’ recommendation to install sidewalks. The board unanimously approved hiring Creighton Manning Engineering, LLP, to design sidewalks on Route 146 in Guilderland Center. The project is part of the Town of Guilderland Neighborhood Master Plan for the Guilderland Center Hamlet, on which Creighton Manning served as the transportation consultant.
“I know the people of Guilderland Center are looking forward to these sidewalks,” Councilman Allen Maikels said.
Design and construction costs for the roughly 4,000 feet of sidewalks total approximately $830,000, but the town received funding through the Capital District Transportation Committee’s Transportation Improvement Program. The town would be responsible for around $165,000, or 20 percent.
Town Supervisor Kenneth Runion said though the town received the grant several years ago, it had waited for the federal government to release the funds. Town officials were told funding is available for design work to be completed this year and then for construction next year. There also is a timeframe to complete the project in.
“It is a busy stretch of highway and people walk out into the road and you got a lot of things there,” such as Guilderland High School and a shopping plaza, Runion said. “There are things that people can walk to … but without sidewalks it makes it pretty difficult.”
A draft design of the sidewalk project is scheduled to be completed in December, and the final design targeted for an April 2014 completion. Construction is targeted to be completed in August 2015.
A public hearing will be scheduled on the project’s draft design, and the state Department of Transportation will provide feedback and approval to the town.
The design would identify environmental constraints, such as wetlands or distributing historic properties, and avoid cutting or removing large trees, according to Creighton Manning’s proposal. During construction, steel plates would be used to allow vehicles to drive through the area.
Creighton Manning’s proposal said the Federal Highway Administration’s data shows around 4,500 pedestrians are killed annually in traffic crashes. Approximately 8 percent of those deaths occur as the pedestrians are “walking along the roadway. Providing sidewalks helps prevent up to almost 90 percent of such deaths, according to the FHA.
The town conducted a study reviewing car crash data from the hamlet for 2005 to 2008 and discovered the area around the corner of School Road and Route 146 had elevated occurrences of crashes. Around 24 occurred in the proximity of the intersection.