ALBANY — The tulips may have come and gone for the season but a new road has bloomed in the heart of the city.
Commuters heading downtown and no shortage of online commenters have noticed, and wondered about, a stretch of blacktop adjoining a section of the South Mall Arterial road underneath the Empire State Plaza. The unopened lane connects with a section of the road leading towards the Dunn Memorial Bridge and Interstate 787.
The state Office of General Services says the road, which will be temporary, is necessary as crews work to fix water damage beneath the plaza. The “infiltration of water” into the arterial road and inner storage tunnels underneath the plaza requires “replacing expansion joints and repairing damaged concrete, structural components, and utility systems beneath the roadway,” OGS Public Information Director Joseph Brill said in an email…