Metroplex board OKs lot, road projects

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Lamendola

The Metroplex Development Authority will spend up to $690,000 to fix a downtown parking lot and reopen a long-closed road near the new Golub headquarters.

The board Wednesday night voted to spend $550,000 to regrade the parking lot behind the Schenectady YMCA in the Center City building. The work will involve the installation of catch basins, resurfacing and restriping, the addition of improved lighting and new sidewalks and landscaping.

“The lot requires additional attention and investment, as it has not witnessed any investment in more than 30 years,” said Jayme Lahut, Metroplex executive director.

Metroplex will also spend $140,000 to reopen Maxon Road at Erie Boulevard, a move to help alleviate late afternoon traffic jams on Nott Street near the Golub headquarters.

“The new exit will allow Golub employees to head north and west more easily,” Lahut said. “Currently, the intersection of Nott Street and Erie Boulevard is among the most heavily congested intersections in the county, especially at peak periods.”

The city closed the north end of Maxon Road in the 1980s, erecting barricades underneath the CSX rail overpass, leaving the road a dead end.

With completion of the 240,000-square-foot Golub headquarters and the addition of more than 800 employees there, local officials decided to reopen the road to help with traffic flow.

Work will involve removing metal barricades and establishing a right-turn-only lane from Maxon Road to Erie Boulevard. It also will include milling and resurfacing a section of Maxon Road from Peek Street to Erie Boulevard, adding new curbing, repairing storm drains and cleaning up the area.

Golub will officially open its headquarters next week. The building is the largest in the county to achieve gold certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System.