This is the detour on the west end of the Cox Creek Path, near Simpson Park and the Water Gardens.
Construction work to replace the Waverly Drive bridge over Cox Creek could have blocked access to the Cox Creek walking trail and bike path, but it has not.
On a ride Tuesday night, I noticed that the contractor has provided a handy detour for anyone traveling on the path to or from Simpson Park and the dormant Talking Water Gardens.
They’ve blocked the path with barricades but cut through the Water Garden fence, allowing path users to avoid the construction area by going through the Gardens for a short distance.
By Tuesday night, workers had scraped off the asphalt surface of the east lane of the bridge, exposing what looked like solid concrete slabs. This lane had been closed to motor traffic for 20-some years. But I guess the bridge’s weakness was not in the deck but in the underpinnings.
For a recap of this replacement project, check here.
The bridge is technically on Waverly Drive, but only because of Albany’s crazy system of giving completely unconnected streets the same name, even if they’re on opposite parts of town, as long as they follow roughly the same lines of longitude or latitude.
This is not physically the end of Waverly Drive, even though it’s called that. More realistically it is an appendix of Front Avenue NE. But I digress.
While I was in the neighborhood, I thought I would invite viewers along on my ride along the Cox Creek Path. Here goes:
The path is only about 1,000 feet long, ending on Salem Avenue. From there we went another 1,800 feet along Salem Avenue, through the Waverly Drive mini-roundabout, to the corner to Davidson Street.
It’s not much of a ride, but it shows part of the network of designated paths and lanes that make this town a pretty good place to ride a bike. Even to the point of providing bike path detours. (hh)
The east lane of the bridge looked like this on Tuesday. The bridge is being taken down and replaced.
Thanks, Hasso, for the bike ride!