Bethlehem and Albany representatives and area residents are urging the state Department of Transportation to make safety improvements to State Route 85, calling the roadway a “corridor of crisis and heartbreak.”
Bethlehem Town Board member David DeCancio and Albany Common Councilman Jack Flynn submitted a petition to the DOT signed by more 1,000 people.
The petition makes three corrective action demands: a comprehensive safety audit of the highway with findings publicly released within 30 days; immediate funding for interim safety measures to mitigate risk; and a fully funded, permanent safety plan to re-engineer the corridor.
They say the petition responds to a long history of fatalities and crashes on the highway, particularly due to what they call a “lane reduction funnel” on both ends of the Bethlehem section of the road.
“Route 85 is no longer just a concern, it’s a danger to every driver in the Capital Region,” DeCancio said in a joint statement. “The community’s message is loud and clear: We will not wait for another tragedy. We demand safety now.”
“This petition shows that our government officials need to act as the accidents are preventable,” Flynn said. “If any change to Route 85 prevents a death, then we did our job.”