The hillside on the south side of the Pacific Boulevard overpass on Tuesday evening this week.
Part of the Pacific Boulevard overpass in Albany looks different these days: It has been cleared of most of the vegetation that made the place a fire danger in dry years, as it did last summer.
I had not noticed this before Tuesday evening, when a bike ride took me along the paved path from Albany Station to Swanson Park. But I should not have been surprised.
In his weekly report to the council on May 7, City Manager Peter Troedsson had announced that ODOT would clear the underbrush there, and he wrote that the work would begin the following week.
It was on the afternoon of last Sept. 2 that a brush fire blackened the hillside before about 20 Albany firefighters, with assorted pieces of apparatus, brought it under control and put it out. The fire sent up embers that started spot fires as far as 1,200 feet away.
To keep it from happening again, Albany Fire contacted ODOT. They informed the highway department of the risk the conditions there posed to the community. As a result, ODOT and Sandy Roberts of the fire department worked out a plan to remove the remaining brush but leave standing trees that survived the fire.
ODOT evidently had the job done as scheduled, and the result is what you see there today.
As for trees that survived the fire, there were just a few, on the very top of the bank:
The grass and brush presumably will grow back. We’ll see how long this patch of state highway right of way will keep the clean appearance it has now. (hh)
It’s good to see ODOT and City of Albany working together to prepare for what is expected to be a dry summer.
Thanks to ODOT’s response, this locale is an ideal venue for a Food Truck plaza.
My grandfather was Mayor at the time and informed me the plantings were an attempt to quell the resistance to the project by neighboring residents.
Besides, everyone who was against the project in the first place is now deceased and the cost of maintenance is probably higher than the original cost of construction.
Maybe the City or ODOT can “plant” some additional metal flowers that won’t catch on fire.
Now if the city would clean up the dead branches and brush which is a fire danger along the canal on the north side of the overpass that would be great! Look much better too…Talked to the crew supervisor when they were cleaning up the overpass and he said they were on board to clean that area once or twice a year. Guess we will see.