Roundabout cost soars by 70%

Sewer work at same site, to be paid for by city, also has grown more expensive

KINGSTON, N.Y. » The cost of creating a new traffic roundabout where Col. Chandler Driver, Albany Avenue and Broadway intersect has jumped by about 70 percent.

Once forecast to have a price tag of $7 million, the project now is expected to cost $12 million.

The creation of the roundabout — which planners say will ease traffic flow at the busy and sometimes confusing intersection — is being overseen by the state Department of Transportation, and all of the money for it is coming from state and federal coffers.

A related project to replace sewer pipes at the intersection, though, is being funded by the city of Kingston, and that work, too, has grown more expensive.

Gina DiSarro, public information officer for the state Department of Transportation, said the larger price tag for the roundabout is the result of “some additions to the contract and plans, which created an increase in costs for construction, design and inspection.”

Ulster County Planner Dennis Doyle said the county Transportation Council, through which the state and federal money will be funneled, will decide soon whether to reprogram $5 million to cover the higher cost of the roundabout.

Contractors’ bids for the roundabout work are to be opened in September. The project is to begin in October and is expected to take two years to complete.

Besides changing the flow of vehicular traffic, the roundabout is to include a 10-foot-wide mixed-use path for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as an elevated crosswalk above Col. Chandler Drive. (I-587).

Signs directing traffic to and through the roundabout will be “ground mounted” rather than overhead, as the current signs are.

City of Kingston Engineer Ralph Swenson said a redesign by the state of the plan to replace city sewer pipes at the roundabout site has increased that project’s anticipated cost from $800,000 to $1.1 million.

Swenson said he will ask the Common Council to authorize the additional funding. The council already has authorized borrowing the $800,000.

Swenson previously said the sewers in the area are 75 to 100 years old.

FILE PHOTO BY TONY ADAMIS Vehicles are shown in October 2015 at the intersection of Broadway (foreground), Albany Avenue (the cross street) and Col. Chandler Drive (beyond traffic light) in Kingston.

CITY OF KINGSTON This rendering shows the planned design of the new roundabout at Col. Chandler Drive, Albany Avenue and Broadway in Kingston.