GUILDERLAND — The state’s Department of Transportation will hold an online public hearing on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 5 p.m. to discuss plans to redesign the intersection of Route 146 (Carman Road) and Lydius Street in Guilderland into a one-lane roundabout.

The hearing can be accessed via the project website at www.dot.ny.gov/146carmanroad and by clicking the video-conference link. People who want to participate by telephone should call 518-549-0500, and use Access Code 161 348 0549 when prompted.

The session will feature a presentation about the project and provide the public with an opportunity to provide comments. Comments may also be sent to the department by Aug. 17.

Project plans call for installing a new sidewalk along eastbound Route 146 between Coons Road and the existing sidewalk north of Jessamine Lane. Route 146 would be resurfaced between Coons Road and the New York State Thruway Bridge.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2021.

Last September, Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber told The Enterprise that, as part of the roundabout project, the DOT intends to acquire the long-vacant Nedco Pharmacy property on the corner and remove the building. 

The department said then that project construction would include resurfacing Carman Road from Coons Road to the New York State Thruway bridge.

The project would be federally funded under a federal safety program, Barber said. The program uses federal dollars to identify intersections that could benefit from improvements, he said.

The town has expected, for the last year or so, that improvements to the intersection would include only new turn lanes, Barber said. But the DOT, after a cost-benefit analysis, changed the plan from new turn lanes to a roundabout, Barber said, to get vehicles quickly and efficiently through the intersection. 

“A large part of that is safety for both cars and pedestrians,” Barber said. Asked if there had been “a lot of accidents” at the intersection, he said there had been “at least enough” to cause the DOT to re-evaluate and change the plan. 

In addition to the already-planned new sidewalks along Carman Road from the intersection as far as Jessamine Road, Barber said, a $250,000 grant secured by Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy will continue the sidewalks further, all the way to Coons Road, the site of Pine Bush Elementary School. 

As a cost-saving measure, Barber said, the town plans to have the DOT design the sidewalks. Asking the DOT to do the work as part of a larger project is a more efficient use of dollars than it would be for the town to hire an engineer, Barber said.

For further information on the hearing or to request a sign-language interpreter or assistive listening system, contact Corey Barringer, project manager, at 518-485-5435, or write to the New York State Department of Transportation, 50 Wolf Road, Pod 2-3, Albany, NY 12232, or email , and reference Project Identification Number 1085.40.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer