To the Editor:

McKown Road has been closed for way too long.The storm drainage project on McKown Road has been going on since October.

The road is closed between Westlyn Place and Short Street with Pinnacle Place in the middle of the closed road. McKown Road is a major shortcut between Guilderland and Bethlehem.

The detour for the project is going through a residential neighborhood, which includes Westlyn Place, Westlyn Court, Ayer Drive, and Short Street.

This has increased traffic on these streets drastically, making backing out of driveways very hazardous. The rush-hour traffic in the morning and in the evening is nothing but a steady stream of cars.

The contractor has done a very poor job in signage diverting cars around the closed road; in fact, neighbors have had to make homemade signs to show that you cannot use Williams Court to get back to McKown Road.

I’ve been told McKown road will be closed until they reach Western Avene. So my question is: Why has the contractor not been working on  McKown Road for the last two to three weeks?

I know they have run into things that they weren’t expecting to find underground and that they have had to do some re-design work in order to proceed, but I believe those issues have been resolved.

Also during this project, residents had seen an increase in the number of times that their sump pumps have been running and people who have never had water in their basements are now getting flooded.

It’s now time to get this part of the project wrapped up.                   

Bob Leddick

McKownville

Editor’s note: An abandoned gas line with asbestos in its coating is in the way of a new storm sewer, according to Guilderland’s highway superintendent, Greg Wier, so it has to be removed.

Biagio DelVillano of Delaware Engineering, the firm used by the town of Guilderland for the project, said they didn’t know the unused National Grid gas main existed until the ground was opened up. The old gas pipe is 15 feet to 18 feet down, and is about 300 feet long, he said, while the sewer pipe being installed is only two or three feet down.

The old gas main has a tar coating on it that contains a small amount of asbestos so a variance was obtained from the state’s Department of Labor, DelVillano said. The pipe will be removed without tenting as a third-party monitor inspects the work to make sure it is being done in accordance with the variance, he said; if the contractor were to do something that the monitor felt was not right, the work would be stopped and additional steps such as air monitoring or tenting would be required.

Bast Hatfield is currently coordinating with its asbestos-abatement company, Classic Environmental, for the removal of the abandoned gas line, DelVillano stated.

He estimated that the labor-intensive hand work will take one or two weeks once it starts. The pipe will be cut, wrapped, and removed in sections and placed in a Dumpster. All of this needs to be done without making the coating on the pipe friable, and without ripping any of the bags, he said.

Before any work is done, warnings must be posted and left for a certain amount of time. Temporary fencing will be put up to keep people at least 25 feet back, DelVillano concluded.