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SCHENECTADY
Broadway focus of access improvement
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.

    The city this spring plans to construct a small road to connect the closed-off end of Van Guysling Avenue to Broadway, opening up the area near Exit 5 of I-890 to further economic development.
    The Metroplex Development Authority will pay for the road, said Chairman Ray Gillen, since state money was not available. Metroplex estimates the cost at $280,000, plus $28,000 for contingencies and $27,000 for design.
    Gillen said the road needs to be built this spring to provide access to the Griffin Greenhouse distribution center and a 16,750-squarefoot distribution center for John D. Marcella & Sons Appliances. Construction will begin this spring on Marcella’s $2.4 million center.
    “We want to go quickly. We have to give them road access,” Gillen said. Van Guysling’s now cannot handle business pressure.
    The city will extend Van Guysling 610 feet south of Edison Street, installing storm sewers, sidewalks and street lighting, and then connect it to Broadway via a 210-foot extension. Van Guysling will then have direct access to I-890.
    “Building a road from Van Guysling down and into Broadway will open up five more shovel-ready sites in the Broadway Commerce Park,” Gillen said. The sites measure between 10,000 and 35,000 square feet.
    Broadway Commerce Park is a region along lower Broadway that John Roth is developing. It once housed Dorp Salvage, since demolished. Roth’s company, Highbridge Development, built the $3 million, 27,000-square-foot distribution center for Griffin Greenhouse & Nursery Supplies of Massachusetts, and it will build Marcella’s facility. It also built an office complex on Broadway.
    “Revitalizing the Broadway corridor, a key gateway entrance to downtown Schenectady, has been an ongoing objective of Metroplex and the county’s unified economic development team,” Gillen said.
    The city is lead agency on the road project because it can obtain competitive prices.
    In addition to this project, Metroplex plans to explore the possibility of extending Van Guysling to Weaver Street, south of I-890.
    Gillen said this phase of construction is contingent on obtaining state approvals and funding. He said a traffic study by Creighton Manning Associates supports the extension to Weaver Street as a means of reducing traffic on Broadway, especially truck traffic.
    “There is opportunity to open up a blighted area and create additional sites. If the park is successful, we could have six or seven buildings there, with 30, 40 or 50 people each, and we would need to create another connection for traffic,” Gillen said............     http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01002

isnt there enough converging lanes and congestion near the underpass of broadway and 890 already...

unless i am looking at this wrong, they are going to connect van guysling to broadway next to that little hot dog/ dinner across from the gas station

Ok....now....when the golub's moved the road in front of cumberland farms, who paid for it? GOLUB'S DID!

Golub is now in the process of closing off that same road and moving it down by Dolan Drive, by the power lines. Who is going to payfor it? GOLUB!

Why then are we, the taxpayers, paying for road re-direction to accomodate a 'few' private businesses? Don't make sense here. I believe we did the same thing for villa italia, right?