By MICHAEL CIGNOLI
mcignoli@saratogian.com
MALTA - Police say the town’s plan to alleviate congestion on Dunning Street has created a traffic safety issue, and town officials spent Monday night debating how to proceed.
Dunning Street has become a popular shortcut for GlobalFoundries employees entering and exiting the Luther Forest Technology Campus, but the increased use of the road has created gridlock during peak hours.
Fearful of what impact the closure of one of the tech campus’ main entrances for construction could have on Dunning Street, the Town Board declared an emergency.
It voted on July 21 to construct a barricade at the intersection of Stonebreak Road and the private Hermes Road to encourage traffic to head south to Route 67, not north to Dunning Street, until the conclusion of construction on Stonebreak Road in two to three months. The barricade went up July 28.
But the town’s use of a hired security guard to regulate traffic flow at the barricade drew the ire of drivers and led to a meeting with state police, where officers said Town Supervisor Paul Sausville was told the town can’t just arbitrarily shut down access to a road without taking certain steps -especially one that it doesn’t own.
Following a meeting with state police, Sausville decided to take down the barricades.
"What we had in place didn’t work," Sausville said, adding traffic was backed up from the barricade to GlobalFoundries’ administration building.
Several board members asked the town’s attorney to review the legality of the barricade legislation. Sausville said he contacted the Department of Transportation and asked for its help.
He said DOT determined there was plenty of signage on how to get into GlobalFoundries, but not enough signs on how to get out.
It recommended installing additional signs in the tech park that would point drivers in the right direction, which Sausville said he endorsed.
A final option would be using a flashing sign at the intersection of Hermes and Stonebreak with the message stating Hermes Road is only for local traffic, a message based on original site plan studies that state Dunning Street and Hermes Road were never intended be used as primary entrances to the tech park.
Hermes Road, which runs from Stonebreak Road to Dunning Street through Saratoga Technology and Energy Park, is owned by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
NYSERDA spokesman Alan Wechsler said GlobalFoundries leases office space from STEP, so there are going to be some employees using the road, but the company hasn’t taken an official stance on through traffic.
"I don’t know that its really an issue we’ve looked at," he said.
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