Newly poured concrete curbs outline one future traffic lane at Washington Street and Water Avenue. (Photo taken 5-6-2025)
The reconstruction of Water Avenue in Albany is moving along, and the shape of a new traffic pattern has become obvious at the street’s western end.
After coming back to town from a week away, I took the bike down my usual route along the riverfront on May 6. The contractor on the city’s Waterfront Project had poured some of the new curbs near the entrance to Monteith Park.
The new curbs form what will obviously be a single traffic lane, turning that portion of Water Avenue into a one-way street. I asked City Engineer Staci Belcastro about that.
‘Yes,” she replied via email, “there will be one-way eastbound traffic between Washington and Ferry Street on Water Avenue. Cars headed westbound on Water Avenue will have to turn left on Ferry when they get to that intersection.”
That’s a change I had not realized was part of the plan. I didn’t remember hearing about it when the Waterfront Project was discussed by the city council or, years before that, the advisory board of the Central Albany Revitalization Area (CARA).
But it’s been the plan all along, whether I remembered it or not. “The renderings and presentations all show the block as a one-way street, and the design plans have always shown the block as one-way,” Belcastro wrote.
In fact, she added after checking further, converting Water Avenue to one-way between Washington and Ferry was shown in a Water Avenue Streetscape Design Guide the city council adopted in 2008.
Belcastro explained the reasoning, too:Â There is a “pinch point” between the railroad track on one side of Water Avenue and property on the opposite side. “That requires the one-way street in order to construct sidewalk and the pedestrian crossing at the Riverfront Community Center.”
This week the four blocks at the west end of Water Avenue have been in various stages of being torn up. Crews for several companies were finishing placing the electrical system under ground and installing other utilities including fiberoptic cable.
This is the finale of CARA’s $21.5 million Waterfront Project and should be completed by summer’s end. (hh)
Looking toward Monteith Park at the north end of Washington Street on the afternoon of May 6.
I wonder how much this increases the value of Scott Lepman’s properties just out of view to the left in the top picture.
All right, what’s going on here? This post has been up for a while now, and there are none of the usual whiney comments yet? Someone should ask the police to do some welfare checks on your usual loyal cadre of trolls. You even used used all of the trigger phrases that should generate the five “first commenters” that are reliable. You put in the $21.5 million cost that always gets at least a few folks all fired up (that kind of silently irks me a little bit too). There are roads mentioned, so the long list of gripes about pot holes should already be posted. Any mention of roads should also get the North Albany folks playing the 12 steps to Kevin Bacon to point out why nothing should ever be built again there because of traffic concerns. Since you brought in a comment from a city employee, there should be several comments tying the city council and government employees in general into all kind of nefarious issues. When you posted a story about ducks swimming in the canal, people were able to find ways to tie that into all kind of strange tangents. I rely on that as click bait to get your loyalists typing. If you post a story that basically says, “The sun came up today.”, I expect my entertainment from your commenters. What gives here?
So you post the first whiny comment complaining there aren’t any whiny comments from people you apparently disdain. How stupid is that? What a hypocrite.