James Cirelli, an engineer in Albany Public Works, presented an evaluation of a two-site pilot of curb-and-gutter “pass-through” bulb-outs installed under the sidewalk repair program in January 2023.

Cirelli said the design, installed at 405 Cairns and 805 San Carlos, preserves street trees while allowing drainage to continue in the gutter line through a permeable rock pad. “During a storm, the bulb-out is doing exactly what we want it to do — water is flowing through the pass-through bulb-out, in and out, without any issues,” Cirelli said.

Staff described multiple operational lessons learned: the original decomposed-granite surface was replaced with 3/4-inch river rock after PROS feedback because DG scours; both pilot sites have required frequent cleaning to remove sediment, leaf litter and trash; soft-hit posts used to mark the pads have been struck repeatedly and replaced multiple times; and nonstandard construction under a sidewalk repair contract led to inconsistencies that would have benefitted from a full-time inspector during installation.

Cirelli said the pilot reduced nuisance ponding that previously occurred 24 hours after storms but noted trade-offs: each bulb-out removes between one and three parking spaces depending on size; they increase routine maintenance workload for city crews; and if not maintained they could cause drainage issues (though staff judged they “will never get worse than it was before”). He recommended that future installations include full-time construction inspection, tighter adherence to plans and consideration of how the city will fund ongoing maintenance.

Commissioners asked about sightlines, placement of posts and neighborhood responses. Cirelli said the business adjacent to one pilot sent a letter of support to preserve a tree and that there had been no recorded negative public feedback to date for the two pilot sites. He also said the city has not committed to expanding the pilot but would treat it as a potential tool when curb repair threatens a street tree.