WESTERLO — The Albany County Legislature on Feb. 9 authorized $10 million in bonds for the construction of a new Department of Public Works highway garage in Westerlo.

The bonding will allow for the replacement of a cluster of aging buildings at a former shale quarry with a modern, geothermal-heated facility.

Albany County has owned the 3.17-acre parcel at 19 County Route 410 for more than 50 years, according to project materials.

The plan calls for demolishing the current buildings and replacing them with a 16,000-square-foot pre-engineered main garage — more than tripling the footprint of the current heated garage — a new 5,400-square-foot cold-storage building, and an 80-by-100-foot salt shed with a cast-in-place concrete foundation and a fabric roof.

The main garage is to be heated by renewable energy via a geothermal radiant-slab system. The metal roof has been engineered to carry a 20-kilowatt rooftop solar array; however, the panel system is described in the project documents as a “proposed” addition.

The county awarded a two-year contract to Lamont Engineers to design and oversee the project; the agreement includes a 52-week construction administration period within the contract, which runs through December 2028.