New paving on Queen Avenue west of Marion Street was being finished on Saturday afternoon.
Traffic should soon be able to get back on Albany’s Queen Avenue from Pacific Boulevard as a contractor winds up a $4 million reconstruction and repaving project.
Since June, North Santiam Paving, of Stayton, has been working on Queen Avenue between Marion Street and Pacific Boulevard. The job included installing new water lines and rebuilding the eastern section of the street. The section between Ferry Street and Pacific was repaved.
On social media, people were asking when the Queen Avenue closure at Pacific would end. Chris Cerklewski, the engineer in Albany Public Works overseeing the project, told me Friday:
“Weather permitting, the remainder of the paving will be completed on Saturday with striping work beginning on Tuesday next week. The plan is to get the striping from Pacific Boulevard to Ferry Street done first, so that section of Queen Avenue can be reopened to through traffic by the end of the day on Tuesday. Queen Avenue from Ferry Street to Marion Street will reopen to through traffic later that week once the remaining striping has been completed.”
On Saturday, the weather did indeed permit. On a bike ride along the sidewalk on the south side of Queen, I could see that the last layer of asphalt had been laid down. A roller was at work giving the new pavement a final touch.
This City of Albany project did not include the Queen Avenue railroad crossing itself. Improvements there are part of an ODOT and railroad project that has been planned and delayed for years and may happen in 2025 — or after that. (hh)
Queen Avenue east of Pacific should be reopened in a matter of days. This was shot Saturday afternoon.
Good timing. Sounds like maybe a soaking or two soon.
I cannot believe they couldn’t coordinate with ODOT and the railroad folks to FIX THE JACKED-UP RAILROAD CROSSING at the same time, so citizens aren’t burdened with another road closure. Idiots!!
They fixed the crossing already.
Not really. The ODOT project at the crossing involves new gates and doing more to smooth the ride over the rails. What was done before was a temporary fix.
Finally!!!!
So all of Queen Ave. will be open by the end of next week? So it is Queen Avenue from Pacific Blvd. S. to Ferry and then Queen Avenue from Ferry to Marion? And that’s it. That is all they have been working on all this time?
Yeah, it wasn’t just repaving the road. Reading is hard, so you must have missed where they replaced water lines and stuff.