Underground needs at planned roundabout considered
City could borrow up to $80,000 to update aging infrastructure
KINGSTON, N.Y. » With the state planning to dig up the ground at the intersection of Albany Avenue, Broadway and Col. Chandler Drive to make way for a new traffic roundabout, city officials are considering spending up to $800,000 to update Kingston’s aging sewer infrastructure in that area.
City Engineer Ralph Swenson told the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee on Wednesday that the sewerage in the area where the new roundabout will be built is between 75 and 100 years old. He said the state Department of Transportation will replace the stormwater infrastructure in that area as part of the roundabout work, but not the sewer.
“If the Department of Transportation is going to put a new roundabout in there and new surface treatments, we don’t want to bury 75-year-old pipes for another 50 to 70 years,” Swenson said.
“Because, now, if something goes wrong, we have to go in there and repair it. Now, you’re digging up new ... work and it’s going to cost significantly more.”
If the city approves making sewer improvements during the roundabout project, the state Department of Transportation would oversee the work and the city would provide the funding, Swenson said. He said if the city does not provide for the improvements, the state will just work around the existing sewer infrastructure.
“When you start working around old pipes, they’re never the same when you get done,” Swenson added.
Swenson said it is estimated the sewer improvements would cost approximately $685,000, but he urged the city to borrow up to $800,000 in case there are cost overruns.
The committee ultimately adopted a resolution authorizing the borrowing of up to $800,000 for the work and authorizing the mayor to sign a utility work agreement with the state. That resolution must go to the full Common Council for approval next month.
Prior to the vote on the resolution, though, Minority Leader Deborah Brown, R-Ward 9, said if the state is forcing the roundabout on the city, it should also be paying for the sewer infrastructure.
Swenson said he does not negotiate such issues, but the city could consider doing so. He said a representative of the city Water Department had been pushing for the state to pay for new water mains. The water main replacement would cost considerably more than the sewer, Swenson said.
Alderman Douglas Koop, D-Ward 2, said, though, that the council voted two to three years ago to support the roundabout project.
“The city’s on record approving it,” Koop said.
Plans for the roundabout to replace traffic signals at the intersection of Albany Avenue, Broadway and Col. Chandler Drive are expected to be completed by June 2018. Bids for the construction work would be opened in September 2018. The contracts would be awarded in October 2018, and construction would start within 10 days.
The $5 million project is expected to take two years.
The city has posted details of the project at kingston-ny.gov/i587intersection.