Bill Williams is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media work on the Empire State Trail project in Hudson has been halted temporarily after asbestos was discovered in an old water drainage system on Harry Howard Avenue, according to city Department of Public Works Supervisor Rob Perry. The New York State Department of Transportation is installing new drainage lines, and had been unloading excess materials from the project in a lot on North 7th Street, Perry said. During the excavation, some of the transite mains containing asbestos were disturbed. A subcontractor is now working to remove the transit pipe that conflicts with the new construction. Construction will resume once remediation is complete, Perry said. The state Departments of Transportation, Labor and Environmental Conservation are all involved with the project. Locally, work on the 19-mile section of trail is being done by A. Colarusso & Son Inc., a Hudson-based construction company. When completed, the 36-mile Albany-Hudson Electric Trail will run from Albany to Hudson and then south to the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, traversing Rensselaer and Columbia counties; the towns of Greenport, Stockport, Stuyvesant, Kinderhook, Chatham, Nassau, Schodack and East Greenbush; as well as the cities of Albany and Rensselaer. There is no public access to the trail as yet. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.