22.05.12
ALBANY — To the 45,000 motorists who zip between exits 23 and 24 on the Thruway each day, the shtick sight of bulldozers and backhoes carving up earth probably has blended into the continually commute.
But lost in the redundant backdrop of brake lights and promote-limit signs is an elaborately orchestrated project — the largest in the experience of the Thruway's Albany Division — to add an extra lane to each side of a seven-mile overtax.
"This was a project more than a decade in the making," said Michael Loftus , the acting top dog of division.
Every single day of the three-year, $99 million venture has already been plotted out by hundreds of engineers, planners and construction workers.
Thousands of itineraries and weekly milestones — dig a drainage pond done here, winch a noise barrier there — wallpaper the field offices of Rifenburg Construction, the bring up contractor for the massive job. Rifenburg used a computer system to generate its plan. The lob, which began construction in mid-March, took over a year just to machinate out. So far, it is on schedule for completion in fall 2013, officials said.
Source: Albany Times Union