GUILDERLAND — Even with years of notice, utility providers failed to move their lines from beneath Carman Road and Lydius Street, hampering until recently construction of the roundabout there and the laying of a sidewalk connecting Pine Bush Elementary School with the northernmost reaches of town. 

During a recent town meeting, while updating board members on various infrastructure projects in Guilderland, Supervisor Peter Barber said the Carman Road sidewalk project was unlikely to be completed this year.

The project, which is to link an existing sidewalk at Ronald Place with the under-construction Lydius Street roundabout and Pine Bush Elementary School, was being held up by underground infrastructure that had yet to be moved, as of the board’s Aug. 16 meeting. 

But the roundabout is now expected to be completed before the year is out, with the sidewalk installation taking place some time this spring. 

Barber explained during the mid-August meeting that the roundabout has four quadrants. “One quadrant is pretty much done,” he said, referring to the quadrant where the former Nedco Pharmacy was once located. Barber said National Grid had lines under the ground as did “seven or eight cable companies,” adding, “You can go as fast as the slowest entity.”

Even though the state’s transportation department gave these companies ample notice, “at least a couple of years,” Barber said, “sometimes they don’t act as quickly as they should.”

In his weekly email update to residents on Aug. 25, Barber wrote that “construction of the new roundabout at Carman Road and Lydius Street would proceed this year with a substantial completion by October 15, weather permitting.”

He noted the project had been on hold while National Grid and some cable and phone companies “moved their infrastructure from the intersection,” and said that work had just been completed, allowing Rifenburg Construction to resume building the roundabout and installing the sidewalk.

Closures

In response to a set of Enterprise questions about the projects, transportation department spokesman Bryan Viggiani wrote, “DOT continues to work with utility companies in preparation for construction of all aspects of this project and plans to begin construction on the new roundabout at Carman Road (Route 146) and Lydius Street after Labor Day, with an anticipated opening to traffic this fall. The rest of the project, which includes sidewalk installations, final paving and finishing work, will continue into the spring.”

The transportation department on Tuesday afternoon announced a series of closures for the project in the coming weeks:

— East Lydius Street between Carman Road and Evelyn Drive, on Tuesday, Sept. 6, starting at 9 a.m., through Friday, Sept. 16, at 3 p.m.;

— West Lydius Street between Carman Road and Rosendale Way, from Monday, Sept. 19, at 9 a.m., through Monday, Oct. 3 at 6 a.m.;

— Carman Road at the intersection of Lydius Street, from Friday, Sept. 30, at 8 p.m., through Monday, Oct. 3, at 6 a.m.;

— Carman Road at the intersection with Lydius Street, from Thursday, Oct. 6, at 8 p.m., through Monday, Oct. 10, at 6 a.m.; and

— Carman Road at the intersection of Lydius Street, from Friday, Oct. 14, at 8 p.m., through Monday, Oct. 17 at 6 a.m.

Costs

An initial scaled-down project, from 2016, had a $1.15 million price tag, but that figure grew to $3.25 million by the time the project was presented to residents, in August 2020. At that time, only the Lydius Street roundabout was included as part of the proposal. 

“When we did the public meeting, we brought this up and one of the concerns people said was, ‘We like the idea of the one by Nedco Pharmacy, but you know, where you also really need a roundabout is up by the Dunkin’ Donuts that enters where the Thruway entrance is.’ [So,] we went back and looked at it and added it,” Viggiani told The Enterprise in late April.

With the second roundabout added, the project went out to bid in September 2021. Rifenburg Construction of Troy was the lowest responsible bidder with a $5.4 million tender, of which approximately $2.4 million has been expended so far, according to the state comptroller.

With additional costs like design factored in, the project comes in  a little over $7 million in total.