Traffic signals for a busy Kingston intersection may cost more than $175,000

KINGSTON >> A preliminary design plan says that installing traffic signals at a busy Kingston intersection is likely to cost more than $175,000, a city official said this week.

City Engineer Ralph Swenson said he is likely to make a request to the Common Council’s Finance/Economic Development Committee in March to pay for the traffic lights.

The lights are to be installed at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and the East Chester Street by-pass.

In late December, temporary traffic lights and concrete barriers were erected at the intersection near the Kingston-Ulster line as preparations are made to install permanent stoplights.

Swenson has said the temporary lights, which are on trailers, and the barriers are expected to remain in place at the East Chester Street and Flatbush Avenue until at least the end of the summer.

In early December, Mayor Shayne Gallo declared a state of emergency at the intersection because the old traffic signals there often failed to work properly. The declaration allowed the city to buy temporary traffic light mounts and barriers without going through a formal bidding process.

Swenson said that the city spent $90,000 to buy the temporary lights and another $6,000 for the barriers.

It’s expected another $16,500 will be spent to pay a company to design plans for the installation of permanent lights.

Alderwoman Maryann Mills, in whose ward the East Chester Street intersection in located, has said the traffic lights there stopped working properly after a power outage that affected part of the city during Thanksgiving week.

She said the state Department of Transportation referred responsibility for the intersection back to the city when the issue first was raised in 2012.

The project will be the second of its kind by the city. Traffic lights also are to be replaced at the Washington Avenue intersections with Hurley Avenue/Schwenk Drive and at North Front Street.