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As you can see, the final push of downtown Albany’s Big Dig has begun. It’s supposed to be finished by mid-July. But then there’s one more thing: ODOT resurfacing the two downtown legs of Highway 20.
As the last part of Albany’s streetscape project, the city authorized a complete reconstruction of seven blocks of Second and Third Avenues.
The decision was to rebuild — rather than merely resurface — the streets to make them last longer and remove the pronounced crown on some of the blocks.
Work started Monday on Third Avenue from Ferry to Broadalbin. When that’s done in about a week, the contractor will do one block at a time. The second to be done will be Second between Ellsworth and Lyon. After that, Third between Ellsworth and Lyon, Third between Broadalbin and Ellsworth, and finally the three blocks of Second from Washington to Ellsworth.
Sidewalks are supposed to remain open even though the blocks will be closed to motor traffic one block at a time. (hh)
If you have a big machine, tearing up pavement looks almost easy.
Those who enjoy history will quickly link the ongoing Downtown Albany street repair project with the so-called “Big Dig” in Boston back in the day. Boston was attempting to create roadways to manage a population of a few-million vehicles daily. The situation is keenly similar here in Albany. Hence, Hasso’s paean to that earlier project is a decent metaphor for what has become the Bain of Downtown Albany,,,aka-the Big Dig. We can only hope that CARA and ODOT are not nearly as profligate as Massachusetts Dept. of Transportaion.
“The situation is keenly similar here in Albany,”
Total garbage. Total. The Boston Project was a $14.6 BILLION dollar freeway undergrounding project.
Your post is a lie.
As someone who lived through the Big Dig in Boston, I find your post laughable.
The two aren’t remotely similar.