The south section of the Albany Station platform was almost complete on Feb. 3, 2024.
After a year and a half of construction, the southern section of Albany Station’s new train platform is nearly complete and about to be reopened for public use.
On Tuesday afternoon, workers in the contractor’s crew were putting the finishing touches on sections of railing on the parking lot side of the south platform. The contractor hoped to have that section open by next week.
At the other end, crew members were preparing to get started on building the other half of the project, the northern section.
The platform project began in September 2022. The job was to raise the 1,200-foot-long platform to the regulation height — 8 inches above the rails — and make it conform with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The contractor is TSE Construction, of Jefferson.
I had no luck getting Amtrak to tell me the contract cost. An estimate I heard on the job site Tuesday was around $2 million.
The project was more complex than it looked to a layman like me. For one thing, construction had to stop every time a train was about to come through.
The platform is on the Union Pacific’s mainline, used by six Amtrak passenger trains and several UP freights per day.
The contractor began posting part of the station’s northern parking lot as closed Tuesday, while planning to reopen a section of the lot on the south side.
City of Albany vehicles that are usually parked on the north lot will park on the south side instead.
How long will building the second part of the platform take? The supervisor I spoke with hoped the job could be completed in six months, maybe a little more. (hh)
The railing on part of the new train platform got the finishing touches on Tuesday.
Thanks for the story and pictures, Hasso. The picture at top of story with the pinkish, golden light is beautiful.
incredible waste of money.