Ramp from I-90 looks like a landfill


Q: The ramp leading from I-90 westbound onto Route 9 northbound in Loudonville is littered with trash so badly that it looks the city dump. This condition has existed for months now and seems to be getting worse. Could the state Department of Transportation spare a truck  and two men for a few hours to clean up this eyesore and threat to public health?

— Hans A. Pohlsander, East Greenbush

A: Carol Breen of the state Department of Transportation said they will get right on it.

“Our maintenance crews have been busy patching potholes, repairing guiderail and picking up trash along our roadways across the Capital District, and will continue to address issues as they arise,” shew said. “They are now aware of the disturbing amount of litter along the ramp from I-90 to Route 9 and will remove it.”

Categories: Littering
Tim O'Brien

9 Responses

  1. lathamguy says:

    Ms. Breen would have been more accurate if she had described the DOT maintenance crews as UNDERSTAFFED and UNDERFUNDED. Face it, folks, if you want good service you have to make a choice: pay more in taxes, or demand cuts in mandated (i.e., entitlement) programs. You can’t have it both ways.

  2. R. Flewelling says:

    Looks to me like a great opportunity for folks to serve some of their mandated community service. Sounds better to me than using my tax money for DOT to do it.
    Brian Mangini, for example (see related T.U. article “Pot charges dropped for school official”) he plead guilty to chearges and mandated to perform 100 hours of service.

  3. HL says:

    One has to wonder with the trash littering greenspace adjacent
    to too many highways whether DOT or its vendors have lost their

    Many municipal functions need to be privatized.

    The profit motive would curb much of the sloth that sufusses many state services.

    Compensation should be based on merit and productivity not civil service tests.

    As it is, DOT outsources many basic functions like trash pickup.
    Apparently with little accountability.

    Of course, if people didn’t litter with abandon, there’d be fewer
    filthy sites.

    People litter because they can. Says volumes about the despairing state of things.

    Litterers should be forced to clean public ways as punishment.

  4. Kell says:

    We should go back to having the inmates do trash pickup. Earn their 3 hots & a cot the littering tax payers pay for.

  5. Mike Lieman says:

    “Litterers should be forced to clean public ways as punishment.”

    You know, Cops are busy with other priorities. You want them to patrol for litterbugs? You’re going to have to end the drug war or something to pay for it.

  6. Gary says:

    Does this mean the Loudonvillains are throwing their trash out their vehicle windows before they enter their pristine community?

  7. Wally says:

    with everyone knocking the state employee & the Governor making a name for himself , instead of complaining about it why don’t you do something about it and get your butt and others together and clean it yourself.

    Stop depending on others when you could do it yourself. DOT is understaffed and there are priorities. Pot holes come first you dont want all those people in Loudonville ruining there alignments of ther BMW’s and Mercede’s now do you?

  8. kathy says:

    Just saw an inmate work crew cleaning up the entrance to 87 from Albany Shaker on Monday….send them to I-90!

  9. Tracy says:

    Ever hear of Adopt a Highway? It’s not just for Businesses, it’s available to everyone. Why not get a groups of volunteers together in surrounding neighborhoods around the capital District and clean up every so often, at least twice a year instead of complianing about it!!