Use state funding to fix Albany’s rough roads

As a North Bethlehem resident, I regularly drive the very bumpy and frequently pothole-laced Bender Avenue and Krumkill Road to gain access to New Scotland Avenue in the city of Albany. The city’s temporary fix of periodically patching potholes along this halfmile route is inadequate to address its longstanding rideability problem.

The new state budget includes nearly $12 million of state transportation program money for the city to undertake reimbursable capital projects on local streets (this includes nearly $4.5 million of reappropriated state transportation program balances from previous state fiscal-year budgets).

I urge the city to use some of this available state funding to implement a greatly needed 10-year service life resurfacing (or reconstruction if deemed warranted) of this stretch.

Steve Ainspan

Slingerlands Retired program manager, state Department of Transportation