Washington Avenue-Fuller Road intersection to be rebuilt

Traffic meanders Thursday through the intersection of Fuller Road and Washington Avenue as work continues at the new Albany Nanotech facility.

By November, the congested intersection near Albany Nanotech where Washington Avenue Extension meets Fuller Road will be history.

An $18 million construction project will replace the intersection with a roundabout on Fuller Road and an overpass for through-traffic on Washington Avenue Extension.

The project is intended to ease traffic around the fast-growing nanotechnology center. Many shoppers going to and from Crossgates Mall and Stuyvesant Plaza also pass that way. Nearly 30,000 vehicles a day pass through the intersection.

“The project will dramatically reduce congestion delays at this location and repair a deteriorating stretch of road for local motorists,” said state Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald.

McDonald and other officials announced the project in a lobby at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, as it is formally known. Its rapid expansion in the last decade has spurred the need for improvements.

“We’re going to be adding another 1,000 jobs after the construction, and it would not be possible without this,” said Alain Kaloyeros, the college’s senior vice president and CEO.

The nanocollege has grown from one building a decade ago to an entire complex where $10 billion has been invested in what has become a world-renown nanotechnology research and development center.

Kaloyeros said the college currently has 2,600 employees, which will grow to 3,500 when a $366 million expansion is finished later this year.

“A very wise leader once told me that if you want to keep expanding, move the highway,” Kaloyeros said.

To some extent, that’s what’s happening. The construction project will realign Washington Avenue Extension to the north. An bridge will carry through-traffic on Washington Avenue Extension over Fuller Road, removing about two-thirds of all the traffic that now goes through the intersection.

Sidewalks and a 10-foot bicycle lane will be built on Washington Avenue, as well as new pull-offs for CDTA buses. In total, DOT officials said 3.5 miles of Washington Avenue and Washington Avenue Extension will be rebuilt, along with a half-mile of Fuller Road.

Financing is from a combination of sources. The Fuller Road Management Corp., a financing mechanism of the nanocollege, is paying 45 percent of the cost, with DOT and Albany County paying the rest. Federal funds are reimbursing 80 percent of the state and county costs.

U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said the redesigned roads will benefit economic development, energy conservation and the environment, and he said it will create jobs.

“Investments in construction and infrastructure are vitally important to businesses and residents alike,” Tonko said.

He also said projects like this demonstrate the need for Congress to pass a new long-term transportation infrastructure funding bill. Political disputes have blocked passage of a new long-term transportation bill since 2009.

“Government is there for a reason,” Tonko said. “Let’s have government on our side, not on our backs.”

McDonald said the state will try to minimize construction disruptions. But with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement earlier this month of the New York Works transportation construction program, she acknowledged motorists will see construction delays across the region.

“There will be disruption because of work this construction season, but people with hardhats on and backhoes are a great thing to see,” McDonald said.

In addition to the Washington Avenue project, the New York Works initiative will invest $237 million in the Capital Region this year, including replacement of the Patroon Island bridge that carries Interstate 90 over the Hudson River and major work on the Northway’s Twin Bridges.

Work on Washington Avenue Extension is already starting. Within sight of the Albany Nanotech labs, trees are being cut where the new Washington Avenue will run.

The work will be done by W.M. Schultz Construction Inc. of Ballston Spa. Substantial completion is scheduled for November, with some final work on Fuller Road to be done next spring.

Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings and Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy praised the project as appropriate and necessary to further expansion at the nanocollege, with all the economic benefits it brings to the region.

“Make no mistake about it, there’s more to come,” said McCoy.