The spot where Washington Ave, Central Ave, and Lark Street run together in Albany is one of the city's busier intersections -- and not just because of cars. It also funnels many of the most popular bus routes into downtown, and it bustles with pedestrians from the surrounding walkable neighborhoods.

And this summer it's getting a bit of a makeover as part of a plan to reconfigure CDTA's facilities around the intersection.

Quick background

If this project sounds familiar, you might remember the outcry a few years back when the plan was first floated. The original idea included consolidating eastbound bus stops into a single stop along the stretch of Washington Ave near the Iron Gate Cafe. The restaurants owners were concerned how the multi-bus stop would affect their business, including the cafe's popular outdoor patio that borders the sidewalk. There was a petition. And a response petition. There were some heated discussions. And the plan was changed.

Why is this happening?

"It's mainly a project to improve primarily safety at the Lark and Washington intersection," Ross Farrell, CDTA's director of planning, said. "If you know the area well it doesn't function as perfectly as it could."

One of the big complications in the current configuration is that some of the bus stops -- like the one for westbound buses on Lark Street in front of Kinaree, near Spring Street -- just don't have much space for people to stand. So there's a crunch for sidewalk room when during peak times, with people standing close to the curb.

The current setup for westbound buses also prompts some routes to make a sort of zigzag out of their way up Central Ave even if they're headed west on Western or Washington because they don't have enough room to get over into the appropriate lane.

The plan

There's a large-format diagram at the top -- click or scroll all the way up. (Also, here's a pdf if you'd like to download it for a closer look.)

OK, so here are main points of the plan worked out by the city of Albany and CDTA:

+ The stops for westbound routes -- that is, buses headed up Washington Ave out of downtown -- in front of the Washington Ave Armory and around the corner on Lark Street will be removed and consolidated into one stop in front of the Albany Public Library. That stop will have a curb cutout (a "bus bay") allowing four buses to stand there at a time. There will be a BusPlus shelter.

+ Just west of the stop there will be a new mid-block crosswalk with a traffic signal. "Right now that block is extremely wide. And if you're out in the middle of the day, a lot of people are crossing mid block," Farrell told us while describing the plan. The signal will eventually be timed with the Lark Street intersection signal to stop traffic from turning into the crosswalk while people are crossing.

+ That mid-block signal and the bus bay will also serve as a queue jump for buses. That is, buses will get the green light sooner than other traffic, allowing the buses to get a head start going west. The idea to help avoid conflicts as buses try to pull out of the stop. The queue jump will also be a precursor to the system planned to allow BusPlus buses -- CDTA's bus rapid transit -- to move along the corridor more quickly.

+ Westbound Washington Ave is getting a turn-only lane for Lark Street.

+ Curb bumpouts at Washington and Dove and other spots along that stretch the shorten the distances for crossing pedestrians.

+ The eastbound bus stops -- on Washington just before Lark, and Lark just before Washington -- stay the same. There will be no consolidated stop on the south side of Washington Ave. Said Jaime Watson, a spokesperson for CDTA, in reference to the back-and-forth over the original plan for a consolidated stop there: "We're glad we were able to come up with a plan that worked for our customers and worked for the businesses along that corrdor."

Cost and timeline

The total cost for the project is $1.3 million -- about 60 percent of that is coming from state funding, the rest from federal money.

CDTA's Ross Farrell said construction is scheduled to start this summer and wrap up by late fall.

Earlier on AOA:

+ Funding for reconfiguring Washington Ave between Lark and Dove

+ The Capital Region's transit arteries

CDTA advertises on AOA.