The signage near Marion Street says the Lochner Road closure will last until mid-April.
Now is a great time to ride your bike down Lochner Road in south Albany, as I discovered Saturday. The reason is no cars.
The road from Marion Street south to Ellingson Road is about 1.3 miles long. About half of it, down to the Oak Creek juvenile corrections center, was rebuilt and nicely paved in 2020.
The entire length of Lochner is open, but there is virtually no traffic. That’s because at the south end, its junction with Ellingson Road is blocked by the construction of a subdivision called Curry Meadows.
Ellingson, too, was closed for about two months for the same subdivision project. But it has been open to through traffic again since Feb. 12.
The City of Albany announced on social media that Lochner will remain closed to through traffic until the construction is finished. According to signage at the Marion Street end, the closure started Jan. 30 and is expected to last until April 15.
It’s not clear, to me anyway, why the closure has to last that long. From what it looked like Saturday, the road currently is used only for storage of pipes.
On Ellingson, the sewer was built down the middle of the road, judging by the patch in the pavement. Question: Why do sewer mains have to be built under public streets, causing vehicles to bump over manhole covers for the rest of time?
When the city approved it, the Curry Meadows subdivision, at the northeast corner of Lochner and Ellingson, was advertised as having 101 lots and requiring that 36 trees be cut down.
The houses will be built by Lennar, a nationwide builder. Canby Excavating is putting in the underground pipes and streets.
Just to the east, at Ellingson Road and Columbus Street, Lennar has been building houses in the 128-lot Henshaw Farm subdivision.
The Henshaw houses range in price from about $437,000 to about $530,000, according to the company website. The houses seem to be selling as soon as they are built. (hh)
Segments of pipe were stored on the south end of Lochner Road on Saturday.
Looking through one of the pipes toward the Henshaw Farm subdivision to the east.
How ordinary people afford a new house now, I don’t know. By that, I mean people with some kind of job. They can’t afford them; that’s the answer to my question. And we retired people get small Social Security raises that are eaten up by Medicare premium hikes. Then, the Republicans want to do away with Original Medicare and have only Advantage Plans that are run by big insurance companies that are completely private industry…other than they are allowed to raid the Medicare funds by laws passed by….you guessed it…Republicans and conservative Democrats. Oh, Gawd!
Two thumbs down to those “affordable” houses…
Thanks for the update Hasso. I wondered why Lochner was still closed. I walked out from highway 99 to Lochner a couple of times when Ellingson was closed. It was very nice with no traffic. I’m just glad that I’m not at the point in my life where I be would be buying a home.
Banks will not sell a home to someone who cant afford it.
There are 19 single family homes for sale in the Albany area for UNDER $300,000. Not counting condos and manufactured homes. The home being built are not for first time buyers.
A top city official in Albany was once heard saying that the senior population was moving out of Albany because they could not afford housing and that maybe they will move back if more affordable housing is built here. A few years ago the statesman’s journal had an article about how senior citizens were hurting society by taking menial jobs trying to survive because it was taking jobs away from high school students. I keep expecting the city manager and council to vote in blood donation clinics to help seniors survive here since that is the only thing left for someone to take away from them.
I know that this is not directly connected to the lochner road project but as a homeowner on Marion street when people fly around the corner from 34th avenue and see if they can be going 50 mph by the time that they get to the RR tracks by the canal. Had I not ran out in front of a pick up we would have had to bury a little girl. And yes I have had to bury numerous cats. I believe that the increased traffic on Marion street is going to turn it into a raceway not like it already isn’t. I would like to at least see a stop sign at the corner of 38th and Marion street ( add two to the existing sign ) hopefully maybe the increased traffic would give the people in the neighborhood a chance to survive.