An Albany County Legislator calling for a new Thruway exit in the town of Coeymans.
Zach Collins, a Republican who represents the 37th district, says commercial vehicles often slow traffic along State Routes 143 and 144, impacting motorists in Coeymans and the neighboring village of Ravena.
Collins says currently tractor-trailers and other commercial vehicles have to traverse those state routes to access Thruway exits 22 to the north and 21B to the south.
"The Port of Coeymans is a great neighbor, but their increased business has increased truck traffic significantly, especially on Main Street," Collins said. "We're experiencing hundreds of tractor trailers on Main Street every day. We're experiencing tractor trailers coming from downstate, especially in the wintertime, coming up to get salt. We have tractor trailers and trucks hauling rock to be crushed by a crusher, and that truck traffic has made a lot of people not want to bring their kids on sidewalks. It's increased our water main breaks on Main Street and on side streets. We've had accidents at our five-way intersection in Ravena, and it's increased time sitting in traffic at our red lights."
Collins initially wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul in December, asking her to consider building a new Thruway exit for the Port of Coeymans.
Collins' plan calls for an off-ramp restricted to commercial vehicles. In February Collins and his staff met with Democratic state Senator Neil Breslin on that and other possible solutions to truck traffic in Ravena.
"There wouldn't be any reason to bring regular vehicles into the port," said Collins. "I think it would industrial access point right into the Port of Coeymans would be the best way to go about it."
Collins is calling on constituents to participate in a letter writing campaign to attract Hochul's attention to the increasing traffic, congestion and noise, and what he calls "the need to strike an appropriate balance between ongoing economic development efforts and quality of life concerns by local residents."
Democratic Coeymans Town Supervisor Stephen Donnelly expects new construction and industrial initiatives at the port will only compound the traffic issues.
"Truck traffic has been a problem here for decades that they've been trying to alleviate. I think that this idea, first that I heard about it was probably about five years ago. But it's always good when a county legislator reaches out to the governor. Hopefully we'll get some momentum going. There was a huge purchase by Heidelberg recently, and we saw that the port, Carver Industries and HolCim, so the truck traffic is significant, and absolutely an exit, I think, would alleviate some of that," Donnelly said.
WAMC reached out to the Port of Coeymans for comment on this story.
Senator Breslin was not available for comment. Governor Hochul's office referred WAMC to the Thruway Authority, which responded to a request for comment with a statement that says in part "This process begins with the municipality, or requesting entity, in accordance with the Federal Highway Administration's guidance, conducting extensive studies and analysis of the transportation network in the area of the proposed interchange, as well as a full review to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. "
