Uptown Campus – Bus Rapid Transit (BRT): Gardenway

November 2023

Background:

The University worked in conjunction with the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) to provide greater transportation services with the creation of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Gardenway. The project, part of a $60.9 million construction grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration to CDTA for an 8.5-mile Albany Washington Western BRT Purple Line route, provides students with a quicker transportation option to get downtown. The BRT extends westward from the downtown Albany Bus Terminal through the Harriman State Office Campus, with a stop at ETEC, the Uptown Campus at the Campus Center, and onward to Crossgates Mall. The full length of the project, the third BRT route for the Capital Region, includes limited stops - including one at the Downtown Campus — 16 uniquely branded buses, transit signal priority, queue bypass lanes, real-time bus arrival information and an expansion of the existing Albany bus maintenance garage to accommodate the additional buses.

The one-mile section of the BRT Purple Line on campus has transformed Alumni Drive into an attractive feature with improved campus aesthetics and safety with new trees, landscaping and lighting, added green space for student recreation, and sustainable infrastructure. The Purple Line is also an opportunity for the Campus to proudly display our academic excellence, offerings and opportunities to visitors and potential students and their families riding the BRT, and the community who walks or bicycles through.

Like the Entry Plaza, the Podium Fountains and Podium Gardens, the Gardenway will become a cherished destination, an important recruitment and retention feature of our campus.

Original Scope:

The BRT will enter UAlbany's campus from the OGS Harriman Campus at the Boor Sculpture Studio through a new connector road limited to buses, service and emergency vehicles. It will then proceed on Alumni Drive past Indigenous Quad and the outdoor track, into a new Campus Center turn around, loop back to Alumni Drive and continue across Dutch Quad Parking Lot and University Drive to Fuller Road. It will be largely a multimodal bike/pedestrian way with enhanced landscaping, lighting, ADA and safety enhancements, and will have places along its path for a variety of campus gatherings and activities. We estimate it will cut the trip from the Downtown Campus to Science Library turnaround by 20 percent.

The University recognizes the importance of it’s existing campus trees through this corridor. Unfortunately, many of the existing trees were in decline and were not located to allow the new roadway and pedestrian improvements to be constructed without being removed or suffering significant decline in coming years. However, as part of the project there are many more new trees, nearly twice as many removed, that will be planted throughout the corridor. These include native species and a much more diverse tree planting palette that will provide a great new experience along Alumni Drive. It’s hard to believe when the campus was first constructed there were no trees at all. The new trees will assist in defining a new great lawn open space as well as integrate with new pedestrian lighting.



Reconstruction of Alumni Drive will...

• Create Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) connections to the Harriman Campus and Fuller Road
• Expand the Campus Center bus stop into a BRT hub
• Complete critical east-west and north-south campus pedestrian and bicycle connections
• Improve campus aesthetics and safety with new trees, landscaping and lighting
• Add sustainable infrastructure, including porous pavement, to reduce stormwater runoff and make UAlbany more environmentally friendly

Project Renderings:

Schedule:

The project is completed and officially in operation.

Questions:

For general questions or concerns regarding the Bus Rapid Transit Gardenway project, please contact Jason Kersch at 518-442-3188, thank you.

Project Photos: (click image to begin slideshow)