A city barricade shielded this stump of a former lamppost on Water Avenue on Feb. 3, 2026.
Albany’s new “plaza street” on the Willamette riverfront has sustained some damage well before it has seen its first intended use for events like the farmers’ market.
As you’ll recall, the western end of Water Avenue was rebuilt with pedestrians in mind. The street was completed last fall with features including brick pavers, landscaping, trees, and benches.
It was the culminating element of the $22 million Waterfront Project of the Central Albany Revitalization Area. which also accomplished reconstruction of Monteith Riverpark and several crossings over the Water Avenue rail line.
The first public event on the plaza street is likely to be the season opener of the Albany farmers’ market on April 18.
On a bike ride last week I noticed someone on a motorcycle or maybe an E-bike had left circular tire marks on the new brick driving lane. A few days later, those donuts had begun to fade.
Then on Feb. 3, I saw that one of the new decorative lamp posts had bit the dust.
I couldn’t confirm what kind of vehicle had hit the post or when. But Robb Romeo, in charge of maintaining Albany city streets, told me that replacing the lamp post will cost about $5,000.
“We did get the driver’s information who hit the light, so we will work with the driver and most likely go through their insurance to be re-imbursed for the expenses,” Romeo said.
Those lamp posts are made of a structural-grade aluminum alloy with some steel parts. Judging from the looks of the stump, they snap off rather than bend when they get hit. (hh)
This story has been corrected. In the original version I mixed up Monteith and Bowman parks.
That’s all that was left of one of the new decorative lights on Water Avenue.
These tire marks on the plaza street pavers still looked relatively fresh when I came by on my bike on the afternoon of Jan. 29, 2026.
In the meantime I’m wearing out the front end of my car weaving in and out of potholes . Washington Street looks pretty good tho.
About Washington… No potholes now. It took many years for it to move up the food chain to be completed. The Capital Improvement Plan shows you the map(s) of upcoming projects.
Start on page 59 to see current projects (and preliminary cost est) for 2026 & going forward. Long list. Most are “unfunded.”
https://albanyoregon.gov/images/stories/publicworks/cip/Albany_CIP-2026-2030.pdf
That’s what insurance is for. Sounds like a non-issue These things will happen.
Looks like street cameras are needed to record whomever is having fun making donuts on the brick pavers… if they got caught they should be responsible for cleaning them up, and probably think twice before doing so again.
Maybe some day Albany high hairs will use our tax dollars for traffic infrastructure to fix our pot hole ridden streets instead of a wall down cobble stone lane