Work to begin on Malta roundabout Friday

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stephen Williams

A half-mile section of Round Lake Road will be closed starting Friday while construction crews build a roundabout at its intersection with Chango Drive, the first of two being installed on the road as part of a summer-long construction project.

The 10-day closure of the road between Cedarwood Drive and Hearthwood Drive is part of what has been a controversial $5.2 million project to increase traffic capacity on the road that runs from the Ballston town line to Northway Exit 11. Work began in May. While there have been traffic restrictions and delays, this will be the first full road closure.

“It’s going to be a modern road that will serve the area’s needs for quite some time,” said Malta Town Supervisor Paul J. Sausville.

The closure, announced Friday by the Saratoga County Department of Public Works, will be from 8 a.m. on Aug. 14 until 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 24.

Creighton Manning Engineering project manager Stephen Godlewski said a second, shorter closure period will be needed sometime in September, when the second new roundabout is built at Round Lake’s intersection with Raylinsky and Ruhle roads. Rifenburg Construction of Brunswick is doing the work.

The project “should be done by early October,” Godlewski said.

The project has been controversial because a number of local residents objected to the inclusion of roundabouts, saying they would have preferred traditional traffic-light intersections. Town officials, however, have been steadfast that roundabouts were the best alternative for the two intersections.

During the upcoming closure, the county said all homes and businesses, including the Hannaford Supermarket, will continue to be accessible. Through traffic, however, will have to follow detours.

Eastbound traffic will be directed to either exits 10 or 12 at the East Line Road intersection, while north-south traffic will be directed onto East Line. Westbound traffic out of the village of Round Lake will be directed onto the Northway, either northbound or southbound.

Town officials have said the need for the project — which will also includes sidewalks, wider shoulders, and other improvements — is being driven by the amount of new residential development in the town of Ballston, which is expected to increase traffic on Round Lake Road by 30 percent over the next decade.

The Stewart’s Shop on Round Lake Road will be losing part of its lot to construction of the Ruhle Road roundabout, and is moving to abandon that site.

The convenience store chain late last month applied for town approval to build a new store across the street, on land that is currently vacant but is zoned for commercial development. The new store would be larger, and would also include gasoline sales, which the current store doesn’t have. The plans were recently sent to the town Planning Board for review, but the Town Board will need to approve before the plans go forward.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 885-6705, [email protected] of @gazettesteve on Twitter.