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Schenectady Downtown Connector Trail Aimed For October Completion

Officials in Schenectady are looking forward to completing the first phase of a connector trail that will bring walkers and bikers from the city’s Central Park into downtown. WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard attended a meeting Thursday night to get an update.

The city is looking to finish Phase 1 of the Downtown Schenectady Park Loop by October.

Funded by a $1.1 million federal grant and $275,000 in matching funds from the city, the project aims to build an off-road pedestrian and bicycle trail that will extend from Central Park, down Bradley Street, turning onto North Brandywine Avenue, and then connect through Vale Park to Nott Terrace.

A large portion of the Bradley Street segment has already been completed and the remaining segments were up for discussion Thursday night.

Project engineer Dan Carey, with firm Barton and Loguidice, said the project was engineered to build an 8-foot path along existing sidewalks.

“It was more for how we wanted to accommodate the trails. So the trail is going to be installed, it’s going to look fantastic, and it’s just a matter of how we want to do it within the project funding. So we looked at an option of shifting the road to accommodate it or holding the road where it is and building back,” said Carey.

The plan was chosen to build back approximately 3 feet in the city’s right-of-way.

Some property owners along the route offered their thoughts. Don Klose pointed out trees he thought should be removed and asked the city to do its work to notify residents whose driveways may be impacted by the move.

He was also concerned about infrastructure under the path.

“About 20 years ago they, in that stretch of the road, they already improved the water, the sewer, the storm sewers, and I want to see the rest of it done before we beautify aboveground and so we’re not having to go back and dig all of this beautification up,” said Klose.

Klose, who said he takes regular walks in Central Park, looks forward to the path’s completion, but also questioned the safetyof the path that heads through Vale Cemetery.

“I don’t think it’s a hundred percent safe environment for a walker or jogger or biker to get to the other side, if you will, of the city,” said Klose.

City engineer Chris Wallin said officials are listening.

“We’re going to be taking the comments that we have, even though there were just a few, and we’re going to incorporate them, and then we’re going to make revisions to the plan, post it to our website, and then reach out again through a letter and through the media,” said Wallin.

Phase 2 of the project would loop the path from downtown to the park. While it is not yet planned, Wallin expects it would not be the same type of off-road path.

“It will most likely be a signed loop on-road where we have amenities, maybe some striping, but I don’t forsee that the entire loop will be an off-road path with the 8-foot,” said Wallin.

The city is also pursuing a linkage study to determine how Phase 1 can be extended into neighborhood streets.

“And in that linkage study we’re looking at how this path, which actually bisects the city — it’s kind of central to the city, we can expand it in a linear fashion, not a loop, to grab people from side feeder streets and bring them down,” said Wallin.

Wallin says the paths will help accommodate the trend within the city of people moving away from the suburbs and into urban areas and give them an alternative way to get to school or work. That’s something the city hopes will make it a stronger place.

Lucas Willard is a reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011.
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