Looking toward Corvallis from the top of the new Van Buren Bridge on Thursday, May 14, 2026.
Thursday was my first chance to take a look at the newly completed Van Buren Bridge across the Willamette River in Corvallis. It is a very handsome and useful bridge, not just for motorists but for walkers and people on bikes as well.
After riding the bike to the top of the bridge from the downtown Corvallis side and down again, I cranked up the video mode of my phone’s camera app:
The bridge cost ODOT about $85 million, including design. Hamilton Construction, of Coburg, was the main contractor. Construction started in May 2023, and on May 6 this year a posse of politicians and others held a ribbon cutting to mark the project’s completion.
The new bridge was built to withstand earthquakes. We’ll see if it does when the Big One hits. It certainly looks solid enough.
With two eastbound traffic lanes and a bike lane, plus a very wide two-way path for bike riders and pedestrians, the bridge replaces the old one-lane Van Buren Bridge completed in 1913.
The old bridge had a separate bike and pedestrian path as well, but with just one traffic lane it was not up to handling the volume of modern-day traffic, or the weight.
If you’ll remember, there was a good deal of hand-wringing in Corvallis about losing the historic bridge. But I guess that people crossing the river to Linn County now don’t regret that it’s been replaced.
In Albany, the Ellsworth Bridge is not quite as old. Completed in 1925, it is wider and apparently better built than the old Van Buren. In 2024, ODOT had the vertical clearance heightened at a cost of $4.5 million.
It would be useful if the Ellsworth Bridge’s sidewalk was wide enough so cyclists could safely go past people on foot. But otherwise, the vintage Albany bridge still does the job, and it will be many years before it too has to be replaced. (hh)
Pavement markings indicate two-way bike and pedestrian traffic.
A place to stop and admire the beautiful Willamette, if you are so inclined.
I drive it everyday and yes, it is nice. Still needs some paint on the underbelly. I’m wondering though what will become of the staging area next to Hwy 20? Some kind of park for foot traffic and bicycles?
I can remember when the Van Buren bridge was two way traffic with no room for pedestrians or bicycles. Truck drivers had to reach out their window and pull the driver side mirror in to avoid striking any oncoming trucks mirror and breaking both.
The new bridge is a definite improvement over “the good old days.”
My grandpa used to tell me stories about that every time we drove over that bridge! Thanks for bringing up the memory RIP grandpa
Bridges are a great way to measure the passage of time since things change slowly with a bridge. My life spans (pun-intended) the period when Albany built the Lyon St bridge, right where the old log boom was that gave me great joy as a 6 year old who wanted to watch a big splash as the logs rolled down the boom to be tied into rafts. I also remember Corvallis with just the old bridge, before the Harrison St bridge was built. As a toddler we lived in Corvallis and I walked across the bridge with my mom and grandmom to a circus tent just on the other side, about where the bypass is now. But I am NOT old enough (thankfully) to remember the old bridge on Ferry St. where only the abutments now exist
Progress indeed!
I remember when the old bridge was two way. Even as a little kid, I thought crossing that was nerve wracking.
The aditional traffic capacity has improved the traffic congestion from north Albany to downtown in a fairly significant way!