The new Cox Creek Bridge on Goldfish Farm Road, as seen on Sept. 28. The bridge now is expected to reopen Sunday evening, Oct. 5.
A few more days remain before Goldfish Farm Road in northeast Albany is ready to reopen, Linn County announced today.
The road has been closed since April for the replacement of the bridge across Cox Creek. The $2.4 million construction contract originally called for the bridge to be done by Sept. 22. Then the completion date was pushed out.
And this morning county spokesman Alex Paul passed along this information: “The contractor plans to complete striping and open Goldfish Farm Road by the end of the day on Sunday, Oct. 5.”
Goldfish Farm is an important road for people in the growing residential districts in that part of Albany. Residents face another prolonged closure when the rest of the road between the bridge and Highway 20 is widened.
That project is scheduled for construction in 2026, according to the county Road Department’s listing of capital projects. It has an estimated overall cost of $3.9 million, most of it covered by state and federal funds.
The widening extends for about 1,370 feet of the road, from about 130 feet north of Highway 20 to just south of the new bridge. The southern part of that stretch will be widened to 60 feet with two travel lanes and a center lane. The remaining leg to the bridge will be tapered to a width of 48 feet by leaving out the center lane.
The new section also will have bike lanes on both sides, along with sidewalks, landscaping and shallow roadside swales to catch rainwater.
“During construction,” the county says, “the road will be closed and traffic will be detoured. Access to local traffic will be allowed for residents and businesses.”
When the county awards a contract for that work, drivers will learn when detours will again be in effect and how long they will last. (hh)
O joy, another shutdown and detour on Goldfish Farm Road coming next year. I agree the section of Goldfish farm road south from the new bridge to highway 20 is too narrow and needs rebuilding. Portions of the section north of the bridge to Knox Butte are much wider and were reconstructed with the new housing development there. I suppose it would have been too difficult, or inconvenient, to do both the bridge and the rebuild on GF road simultaneously, thus sparing us another six months? of detours and inconvenience.
why didnt we hire the same outfit to replace this bridge, that replaced a 150 ft rr bridge in a matter of hours? getting stuff done asap is cheaper than paying a buncha fool idiots taking all summer to do it. trumps new way of doing things. the longer the job takes, the more it costs! …imagine the railroad shut down all summer to replace that 150 ft bridge.
The road was not open on 5 October. Why does the county keep advising the road will be open when clearly it has been closed both dates (22 Sept and 5 October) that were conferred to HH?