GUILDERLAND — New, wider, better-marked bicycle lanes along Route 20 from Crossgates Mall to the main entrance to the University at Albany are part of a $730,000 repaving project that started on June 25 and is to be finished in a month.

The DOT project will also include a pedestrian-controlled crosswalk with a countdown timer that will link both sides of Western Avenue at the McKownville firehouse, said New York State Department of Transportation spokesman Bryan Viggiani on Wednesday.

The lanes will help bicyclists move more safely through one of the most congested areas in the Capital Region, said Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, who helped move the project forward. She said that she knows firsthand, from biking from Albany to Crossgates, how dangerous it is, and that she has also received complaints about that section of roadway.

There are “sharrows” — shared-lane markings — now on the road in much of that stretch, but this project will widen bicycle lanes to five feet in most areas, and to at least four feet everywhere, said Viggiani. Fahy added that the existing markings are largely faded out.

Viggiani said the project will not only widen the bike lanes and mark them better but extend them further on both ends of the stretch.

The work has been engineered, and will be completed within the existing traffic patterns and number of traffic lanes, said Viggiani.

Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber said the project will include “signage to more clearly delineate bike lanes.”

Barber said that the town, over the past several years, has been trying to get a more collaborative relationship with the DOT — letting the DOT know, far in advance, what the town’s needs are for specific areas and then keeping an eye on DOT projects to see when scheduled work might relatively easily allow for additional improvements to be rolled in.

Viggiani said that whenever the DOT works on roads, it tries to consider how the roads can be improved for all users, not just for motor vehicles. He said this is a relatively low-cost project for taxpayers that will benefit bicyclists because of the bike lanes; pedestrians because of the pedestrian-controlled crosswalk; and motor vehicles because of the repaving.

“You’ve got UAlbany right there. There should be better ways to access the mall than just driving,” Fahy said, noting that improved safety for bicyclists and pedestrians will not only benefit them but also area businesses.

She said her daughter has a summer job at Crossgates Mall but that Fahy’s husband has “totally prohibited her” from bicycling there, precisely because of that stretch of road. Her daughter bicycles to the Pine Hills Library and takes the bus from there, Fahy said.

Pedestrian countdown

Fahy said that she has had requests for years for a safer crosswalk at or near the McKownville firehouse from three sources: the fire department, area residents, and county legislator Paul Miller.

“We’re just thrilled that DOT is listening,” she said.

The crosswalk will link residents on either side of Route 20, said Barber, as well as residents on one side of the street with businesses on the other.

It is “kind of a stretch,” Viggiani said, between the two nearest currently existing crosswalks, noting that the new crosswalk will have ramps that comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, to make them accessible to all users.

Viggiani was not immediately certain if the crosswalk will be where the existing firehouse traffic light is — in the middle of a block — or at a nearby intersection.

Paul Miller, who represents McKownville in the legislature, said he has been trying to get a pedestrian crosswalk put in there for some time, and calls it “a great idea.”

People who use public transportation and get off nearby, he said, must cross Western Avenue.