Description
This intersection looks like the streets of New Delhi, India during rush hours when a train is crossing!
Yesterday at 4:45PM, approximately 20-30 vehicles were waiting on each street at Mohawk St., Columbia St., Bridge Ave., Remsen St., and Cohoes Rd. for the train to cross.
I was on Mohawk St. headed south. My vehicle was stopped and waiting for the train just like everyone else was. As soon as the train passed by, 5-6 cars peeled-out and violently passed me and 4 other cars on the left side of the road in order to make the left turn over the railroad crossing, in order to get to Interstate 787!
The chaos and agressive road-rage that this intersection causes is intolerable! Someone is going to get killed here because of this horrific bottleneck which needs to be completely reconstructed NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE TRAIN CROSSINGS IN COHOES HAVE BECOME A DANGEROUS TRAVEL NIGHTMARE!!!! FIX THEM NOW!!!!!!!!!!!! MAKE THESE DEATH TRAP ROADWAYS ONE-WAY STREETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6 Comments
guest (Guest)
The problem is more complicated than just the drivers. There was a great plan to close 3 of the crossings and make 2 of them one way. Since the train accident that resulted in a death, that plan has been tabled.
CP Rail is now running trains over 10,000 feet long, where they used to run half that size. Worse, the speed is reduced, so the trains take longer to clear.
The absolute solution, for all time, would be to "sink" the tracks, below grade, eliminating all crossings.
Now that these trains are hauling gas, it is a huge safety issue. One accident could result in the destruction on most of the city.
This happned several years ago in the western part of the state.
It is a huge capital investment to dig a trench to put the tracks below grade and add the bridges, but it is now a priority.
Hopefully someone in authority will push for this. Cohoes is tough. I remember when the power plant was supposed to be built, but got cancled, even though it had support from congress.
I really hope they work with the state and CP Rail to make this happen, and soon.
Also, completing the I-787 loop to I-87 and the RT-32 bypass would be a good idea as well.
EnoughTrainHorns (Guest)
guest (Guest)
There was a plan to make the streets one way and to make the area a quiet zone, but after the crash at New Cortland St that killed the woman, they scrapped the plan.
If you read my previous comment, making the train tracks below grade is the logical solution and adding flyovers for I-787 and Rt-32.
Next year they will begin taking bids for the 2016 RT 32 bridge replacement project, and this would be the perfect time to bring back the I-787 loop to I-87 and RT-32 Bypass plans that were scrapped in the late 80's.
The amount of traffic now warrants the need for both of these projects to be done.
Talk with your neighbors and start a petition and hold a meeting to get the ball rolling. A website would be a good idea too.
anonymous (Guest)
Believe me, I hear the train horns all day and night as well! It is very annoying, to say the least!
Someone mentioned an I-787 loop to I-87... Where was that supposed to be? I would imagine it would go up where Cohoes-Crescent Road is now and then connect to near Exit 8 of the Northway?
guest (Guest)
I-787 was supposed to be a loop from Exit 23 of the Thruway to just south of the Twin Bridges. It was designed to be a bypass so you did not have to go to exit 24 and then up the Northway.
This was to lessen traffic between Latham and Albany.
The plan included the Route 32 bypass, converting the existing route 32, which ran through Cohoes and Waterford to BUS 32, a local route and taking all through traffic onto the bypass, which would have become the new Route 32.
The path of I-787 was dupposed to have a flyover and be a raised highway with limited access going over the top of the existing Mohawk St.
Once it reached the Cohoes city line, it would have dropped down and been at ground level till it reached route 9 where there would have been an interchance and then finally ending at I-87.
There was talk of making the loop complete by connecting ti to I-890, but this was not in the plans I saw.
The Route 32 Bypass would have went over the river over the top of the old Champlain Canal as a raised highway, ending near the Waterford Library.
Plans for both projects were scrapped in the late 80's when they had so much trouble completing I-787 just to where it is now.
A new plan is needed. The old plan was a good plan, but it will cost a lot of money. Reminds me of the 15 mile stretch of I-287 in NJ that took 50 years to build.
It was on the maps from the 60's as proposed, and "under construction" on 1970's maps, all the way into the 90's, finishing one short piece at a time.
guest (Guest)