Benton County Engineer Laurel Byer adjusts the path-planning graphic at the farmers’ market in Albany Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.
Several big issues have to be resolved before there’s any chance that the long planned Albany-Corvallis bike and walking path along Highway 20 can be built.
This was illustrated by an informative graphic on display during an open house about the path project at the farmers’ market in Albany Saturday.
One of the big issues highlighted on the display is that “farms and agricultural lands along the corridor represent key land uses that the future path will need to respect.”
If the path is placed off Highway 20, it will have to cut through many private properties including farms, and truly respecting them means the path cannot be built there.
In addition, there is Bowers Slough, described as “an important natural area.” The path “will need creative design solutions to fit within this narrow, environmentally sensitive area.”
The new effort by Benton County and ODOT to study the path idea extends eastward only to Rainwater Lane in North Albany. Any extension toward Hickory Street in Albany is “on hold pending the results of this plan.”
But that is a crucial connection without which there is no point in building the rest of the path. The Union Pacific Railroad has already rejected an underpass under its track to connect to Thornton Lake Drive, and other property owners have opposed giving up part of their yards.
Then there’s the question of getting the path across Highway 20 at one or more points. County Engineer Laurel Byer said something about underpasses when I briefly spoke to her at the farmers’ market. I’m not sure she was serious.
If there’s a solution to any of those issues, it’s to keep the path within the ODOT right of way on the south side of Highway 20 all the way from Corvallis to Albany. Signals that already exist at intersections would provide necessary crossings without under- or overpasses.
On the Albany side, the path would connect to downtown via the Lyon Street Bridge. It would connect to the bridge with a link from Takena Landing Park to the east side of Spring Hill Drive. (Years ago I used an informal trail there to get to the park from downtown.)
ODOT and Benton County envision the current study of the path alignment to take until early 2027, presumably to be followed by more planning later.
If they just work on the alignment in the south right-of-way and adopt my suggestion for the Albany link, they could save themselves a lot of time. (hh)
Hasso, what’s your route? Could you map it and post it? Thanks.
Why did they build a path along Hwy 34, ending at Riverside Dr. Then one half of Riverside was rebuilt. The other half of Riverside has not been updated. Thought that was to create a bike path between Albany and Corvallis. I’m confused.
As I understand, Linn County is waiting for a grant before finishing the job on Riverside Drive.
Maybe Trump will give them a grant! Bike-riders: Send some money to Trump for his further demolishing of The White House for his ballroom, and maybe he will send a grant to finish the Riverside Drive bike path!!
it seems to me that a country that is $34,000,000,000,000.00 in debt probably shouldn’t be building bike paths or a whole lot of other things.
ODOT spends way too much money studying things that can’t/won’t happen instead of fixing immediate need projects.
Would this path become a speedway for the high power Ebikes?
The Riverside Drive route makes a lot more sense. I did that 50 years ago without a bike lane, only shoulders. I felt safe. There is not as much traffic there as on Hwy 20
Speaking of the current occupant of the demolished White House, I found this on the interwebs:
“In September 2025, the Trump administration began canceling federal grants for bike paths and pedestrian projects, with officials citing that the projects were deemed “hostile to motor vehicles”. The cancellations, which occurred shortly after the administration took office, reversed grants awarded under the previous administration and were communicated through letters to local governments in several states, including Alabama, California, Massachusetts, and Illinois.
September 2025: The Trump administration started rescinding federal funding for bike paths and pedestrian safety projects.
Reason: The administration stated that the projects were deemed “hostile” to motor vehicles and did not align with its priority of preserving or increasing roadway capacity for cars.
Affected projects: Grants for projects including a road diet in San Diego, trail development in Fairfield, Alabama, and improvements in Boston’s Mattapan Square neighborhood were canceled.”
HOSTILE to cars. Please let that madness sink in!!
“But that is a crucial connection without which there is no point in building the rest of the path.”
Hogwash! Can ride in the on the shoulder through this short section.
Is the pressure from the City to force Mennonite village to allow bikes on their walking paths part of this?
I also like the Riverside drive route. It is quite amazing how you can be in downtown Albany and then only a minute later be completely surrounded by farm fields after going by Bryant Park.
The ability to go from downtown Corvallis to downtown Albany makes the route and attractive recreational trail.
There is far less traffic on that route and any additional improvements to make it more bike friendly would be less costly than next to highway 20.
Its no wonder why this country continues to fall further behind other countries when it comes to projects outside of car-centric infrastructure, oil & gas extraction, and social media apps. The way some people continue to give a victimized voice of loss to every land owner between Albany and Corvallis is erred. In addition to an alternative transportation option (which communities ought to have), this path would be a great health, social, and tourist benefit to the communities. If this was a road or highway project strictly for cars, the optics and support would be vastly different undoubtedly.