Route 531 changes to get airing

While the state Department of Transportation is preparing traffic improvements for the terminus of Route 531 at Washington Street in Ogden, some say the changes aren't enough and are calling for an extension of the expressway.

An open house-style public hearing is scheduled to unveil the changes and solicit public input at 5 p.m. Feb. 5 at Spencerport High School, 2749 Spencerport Road. A more formal hearing will begin at 7 p.m., with a short presentation outlining alternatives that were studied before deciding on a preferred plan.

That plan, at a cost of $15 million, is to dead-end a portion of Route 31 just to the west of Washington Street, and eliminate the right-hand jog onto Washington that motorists now must take when exiting Route 531 at the signal light. Instead, there would still be a signal light there, but motorists would continue directly onto Route 31 after the intersection.

Daniel Schiavone, who was mayor of the village of Holley in Orleans County in the early 2000s, said he travels on Route 531 daily and that the proposed change is a "Band-Aid" and "maybe money wasted."

Instead, he said, what DOT needs to do is stick with much earlier plans to run Route 531 out to Redman Road in Sweden in order to allow motorists to bypass Route 31 completely, thus making that roadway safer and far less congested.

"The best resolution has always been to extend 531," he said, adding that the state has a healthy budget surplus that would be well-spent on infrastructure projects like an expansion.

Whether or not to keep extending Route 531 has been a hot topic even before the long-anticipated grand opening of the roadway's most recent expansion in the mid 1990s. Then, the state spent $27.5 million running a six-mile, four-lane extension from Manitou Road to Washington Street. That portion of road opened in September 1994 to great fanfare and the expectation it would bring a boom in development to western Monroe County.

The anticipated development boom has been a mixed bag. Sure, there are a few more notable big-box stores on Route 31 in Sweden — Super Walmart and a Lowes Home Improvement — and some others such as Tractor Supply and CountryMax. But population growth has been lackluster: U.S. Census figures show Sweden's 1990 population as 14,000 people and its 2010 population as 14,200 people; in Ogden, the 1990 population was 17,000 and in 2010, the population was 20,000.

Still, even before the first expansion opened, there were cries for another, with the federal government committing $5.8 million in January 1994 to study building out to Redman Road, a move that had been talked about for decades. The first section of Route 531, from Interstate 490 to Elmgrove Road in Gates opened in 1963 and transportation planners in the 1950s had talked about a west-side expressway stretching to Orleans County.

After a couple of false starts, DOT in 2004 kicked off an extension study, with motorists and nearby residents saying an overburdened Route 31 was unsafe and terribly congested for peak morning and evening commutes.

But, in 2009, DOT announced while it would make improvements to 531, it would not be expanding the roadway in the foreseeable future. At the time, then-DOT Regional Director Kevin O'Buckley said studies showed doing so was not economically feasible or necessary.

In October, DOT announced a completed draft designs for the work, with a preferred alternative of a four-legged, signalized intersection at Route 531 and Washington Street, with new transition from 531 to 31 running along the existing onramp just south of Route 31. Route 31 would be widened and a center median would be installed to just east of Gallup Road. A 2,000-foot section of Route 31 to the west of Washington Street would be turned into a cul-de-sac and a continuous two-way left turn lane would be installed between Gallup Road west toward Salmon Creek Road.

Project displays outlining the proposed changes will be available at the public hearing, and DOT project team staff will be on hand to answer questions. The agency will accept public comments that will be incorporated into the final design stage.

Construction could start in 2016 and last about a year. According to DOT, most of the work would be done during daytime hours with the intent of maintaining two-way traffic as much as possible and minimizing traffic disruptions.

MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com

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