KINGSTON, NY
ROUNDABOUT NEWS

for pictures of this roundabout, click here.

One of the new stone walls at the roundabout incorporates a circular area where a sculpture may be placed by local officials.

KINGSTON - When transportation engineers design a roadway or interchange, there are scores of issues to keep in mind. Issues such as driving speed, traffic flow, safety, and drainage.

The designers of the new roundabout at the New York State Thruway interchange in Kingston had a few more items on their punch list: drought-tolerant plants, historically inspired stone walls, and a variety of trees that provide year-round visual interest.

"We had our landscape group, which includes some landscape architects and members of the community, working to come up with a design that would enhance the area," said Mike Schaefer, project designer for the New York State Department of Transportation. "It was really up to our landscape designers to come up with something that would look nice and enhance the Kingston entrance."

The most eye-catching features of the landscape design are the stone walls built in and around the roundabout. In the center of the roundabout, a raised hillock topped with a stone wall was built, according to Schaefer, to block the sight lines across the traffic circle. This is done to prevent drivers from being distracted by seeing too much of the various entrances and exits on the roundabout, and to slow down drivers, who tend to go slower when they cannot see what's in the distance.

While the state Department of Transportation could have easily installed a concrete barrier of some kind, a dry-laid bluestone wall is the focal point of the center rise. Schaefer said this was done to pay homage to one of the areas greatest historical industries. "I believe that Ulster County was the leading producer of bluestone in the United States, and that led to the choice of incorporating those features," he said.

In addition to the center wall, two shorter walls are placed between the exits for Washington Avenue and the New York State Thruway; and between exits for the Thruway and state Route 28. Built more for aesthetic reasons than for engineering purposes, these walls terminate in a round, stone platform that can be used for artistic pursuits. "That was left open for the county and the city or town to arrange if there was some sculpture or something they wanted to place there," Schaefer said.

Around the center circle of the roundabout is what appears to be a walkway. But Schaefer explains that it is a truck apron, so if trucks need to go up on the curb, which may occur when trying to make the turn on the inside lane of the roundabout, they can do so without causing ruts in the shoulder.

As special as the physical features of the roundabout's landscaping plan are the trees, shrubs, flowers, and ground covers planted there. Senior Landscape Architect Al Agrasto with the state Department of Transportation said the design was based on three factors: hardiness, year-round visual interest; and, of course, budget.

"You need to care for things that are alive, but we try to chose environmentally tolerant trees and stuff that's a little bit tougher than normal," Agrasto said. "Basically we're trying to give four seasons of interest."

Year-round interest is provided in part by the trees planted there, each chosen for their unique qualities. The evergreens planted on the site are spruce and pine, which Agrasto said are the hardiest of evergreens. Deciduous trees used in the design include flowering pear trees and oaks. "We used the flowering pear trees for color and seasonal interest, and they're also very hardy," Agrasto said. "The pear also holds its leaves very late in the season." Crab apple trees and shadblow, a native tree, were also used.

For those who have driven slowly enough to notice the yellow flowers blooming in the center of the circle, but not slowly enough to identify the species, they're day lilies, chosen both for their hardiness and for their tendency to spread in clumps if left to their own devices. "They're one of the toughest plants around," Agrasto said.

And for interested lawn aficionados, even the grass seed is specially mixed for roadside use. Agrasto said the Department of Transportation used a mix of bluegrass, rye grass, and fescue, each of which performs well in a variety of situations.

the original article

Tempers flare in annexation dispute

The Kingston Freeman
November 04, 2001
By Paul Kirby, Freeman staff

TENSIONS between city of Kingston and town of Ulster officials have heightened over procedural issues in the proposed annexation of town land between the city line and the Thruway roundabout.

Kingston Common Council President James Sottile, a Democrat, fired off a letter to Ulster Assessor James Maloney, a Republican, criticizing the town official's refusal to certify the names on a petition signed by town property owners who favor annexation.

Maloney, for his part, said the city did not act properly -first by not filing an official request with his office to conduct the certification; and second by offering a flawed petition.

Sottile also took Maloney to task in a letter to the town of Ulster's attorney, James Kerr.

"There are certain non-discretionary acts that an assessor must perform when requested in the normal course of business," Sottile said. "The fact that the town's assessor refused to certify the information when presented, in my opinion, indicates to me that he is derelict in the duties of his office."

Maloney, a candidate for the Ulster County Legislature, said he was presented with a request to certify the petitions from city Alderwoman Mary Ann Parker, R-Ward 4, but never received an official request from the city to review the petitions. He said Parker came to his office unannounced, and he refused to conduct the certification.

"When I receive a formal request, on city letterhead, I will confer with the town attorney and take appropriate action," Maloney said. "(City officials) should act like professionals and put forward a formal request."

And for Sottile to claim he was derelict in his duties, Maloney said, was "totally incorrect."

Additionally, Maloney said the city's lawyer, Donna Hintz, ruled the petitions, submitted to the town by Alderman Charles Landi, D-Ward 3, had a number of flaws. Maloney questioned why he would certify petitions that are flawed.

Among other things, Hintz said in a memo that the "petition fails to adequately describe the territory under consideration for annexation (and) ... fails to state the approximate number of inhabitants of the same territory."

Hintz also said that because the petitions were flawed, there would be no need for a public hearing.

But Landi said the entire matter reeked of government stalling on the request by property owners to be annexed.

Landi has argued that because city sewer users have contributed to the operation of the sewer treatment plant over the years and paid for its expansion, the only fair way to supply municipal connections to town properties along Washington Avenue and Sawkill Road would be through annexation.

"The reason that our taxpayers pay higher property taxes is to get these services, and we should not be giving them away," Landi said.

Landi also said it was not the city requesting the annexation, but the town property owners, and he argued that no official request from the city to Maloney is needed.

the original article

Roundabout has shed 'Malfunction Junction' stigma

The Kingston Freeman
December 15, 2001
By Hallie Arnold, Freeman staff

TOWN OF ULSTER - It's been a year since the redesigned traffic roundabout at Thruway Exit 19 opened to a flurry of public resistance.

It was, after all, a dramatic change. The old circle, 600 feet in diameter, that people were used to whizzing around at 30 to 40 mph was reduced to what seemed tiny - a roundabout measuring 200 feet across that slowed drivers' speeds considerably as a function of sheer geometry.

The interchange that joins some of the area's major thoroughfares - state Route 28, Washington Avenue, Col. Chandler Drive and the Thruway - was forever altered, a transition that state Department of Transportation officials say was difficult but ultimately worthwhile because of a dramatic reduction in the number of accidents there.

"The reduction in the accident rate is 65 percent. If you want to talk about personal-injury accidents, that's been reduced by greater than 85 percent," said Colleen McKenna, spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation.

McKenna said that during the three years prior to the redesign, an average of eight accidents per month were recorded by local law-enforcement agencies at the traffic circle. During the six months that followed the completion of the roundabout and the installation of signs - from February to August 2001 - there were only 2.8 accidents per month.

"We knew that once people got used to it, this is what would happen, and it did and it's great," McKenna said. "The average daily delay has also been reduced significantly. That, of course, is because it's a constant flow of traffic now."

McKenna said the success of the roundabout is helping the Department of Transportation promote this type of interchange as a replacement for large traffic circles and multiple-entrance intersections. A significant change from the old circle to the new roundabout is that drivers who merely need to move from one spoke to the next - Chandler Drive to the Thruway entrance, for example - can avoid the rotary altogether by using new access roads.

The Department of Transportation already has installed a similar roundabout on Long Island, has had public hearings and design sessions concerning proposals in Broome and Westchester counties and is in the early stages of considering a roundabout in the Raymond Avenue area of Poughkeepsie.

McKenna said the department learned some lessons from the local experience that will help it improve future projects. "I think that our public outreach was good, but it can always be better," she said. To that end, the Department of Transportation's Web site now includes a special section on modern roundabouts.

Local drivers who objected to the new roundabout at the outset now say they're more comfortable navigating the interchange, but they still question the need and $2.7 million expense.

"If it's a lower accident rate the state wanted to see there, they probably accomplished that, however, not by better design. More by a higher 'fear factor,'" said Albert Bruno of Kingston, who last year dubbed the roundabout "Malfunction Junction."

"While I have gotten used to it over the last year, I still feel the state could have accomplished the same end result, spending a lot less of taxpayers' money," Bruno said.

Bruno suggested the speed limit on Chandler Drive could have been reduced, stop signs at entrances to the roundabout could have been better enforced and perhaps a traffic light system on the old circle could have accomplished the same goal.

Traffic volume at the interchange has remained constant at roughly 36,000 vehicles per day.

the original article