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Expect traffic delays on your way to the mall this summer.  Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill says that the Village portion of Triphammer Road will be entirely repaved before next fall.  The project will replace 54,730 square yards of pavement on the thoroughfare that includes access to the Shops at Ithaca Mall, Cayuga Mall and Triphammer Marketplace, as well as scores of businesses along Triphammer Road between the Cayuga Heights and Town of Lansing borders.

"This year we have two rather large projects," said Mayor Donald Hartill.  "One is to resurface Triphammer Road.  The other is to redo Bush Lane as part of our water main replacement.  In addition, out of that $1.7 million there is still about $400,000 of routine maintenance."

Village officials anticipate spending $1,763,036 on the two major road projects and some lesser maintenance this construction season.  No major work has been done on Triphammer Road since the a major redesign and building project in the mall section of the road in 2007.  Hartill says that in recent past years the Village has spent about $400,000 annually to pave about two miles of roadway per year and other projects, but this year's projects are more ambitious.


Milling, and two inches of paving on Triphammer Road (6020 tons of blacktop). striping, synthetic imprint crosswalks made of recycled plastic, and miscellaneous repairs are estimated to cost $815,000.  An additional $12,500 is budgeted for new LED lights that will replace existing lights along Triphammer Road.  Hartill said this is a pilot project to see how LED lighting will work for Village roads.  Once the municipality has some experience with maintaining them on Triphammer Road he said they will install them at other locations.

"We are trying it as a test vehicle for other road projects," Hartill said.  "The current lights that we have, if you detect the light bulb being burned out, you just replace the light bulb.  If you don't detect for two days, you effectively replace the whole unit.  There is a big capacitor and a big ballast -- these LED lights will eliminate that.  The maintenance of those things is a pain.  They are tall enough that we have to contract with someone to replace the bulbs. I'm hoping that the LEDs will last much longer and have much lower energy consumption.  The cost savings on electricity, even over fluorescents, is at least a factor of three.  Certainly over two. We can look forward to at least a $20,000 saving on electricity."

Hartill says that electricity for the current street lights costs $45,000 per year, which he hopes to reduce substantially by restructuring the way the Village pays for electricity, as well as reduce the amount of power needed.


"The long term plan is to get rid of NYSEG as the contractor here and just buy the electricity from them," he said.  "The conversion to LEDs is going to help that.  We may actually do it before we have the full conversion to LEDs, but that's the long term plan that will probably end up saving us $20,000 or $30,000, hopefully next year.  $20,000 at least."

A second large project will cost $431,636 to resurface Bush Lane. The project will include water main repairs and widening the road shoulders.  Hartill said that this project and future road projects have a pedestrian and bicycle friendly approach.

Other projects in the coming construction season include $120,400 for work on Graham Road West.  $41,000 is budgeted to complete a sidewalk on Pyramid Drive, and another sidewalk near the swim club on Uptown Road will be completed in this budget year.

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