The junction of Queen Avenue and Lawnridge Street was closed not just to through traffic but all traffic on Wednesday morning.
Wondering if the contractors were going to get done with Queen Avenue before Labor Day, I put the question to the Albany city staff.
Labor Day is Sept. 4, following by Albany schools starting a new year on Sept. 5 and 6. The answer to my question about
Queen Avenue is yes, the plan is to finish well before then.
That’s what I got Wednesday from Chris Cerklewski, the city engineer overseeing the $6.2 million street reconstruction on Queen. The main contractor is K&E Excavating, of Salem, which is also working on the Albany riverfront project.
On Queen, Cerklewski wrote in an email:
“They are working to finish the curbs and utility work by the end of next week. The remaining paving and striping work is scheduled for the week of August 28th. Queen Avenue from the Calapooia River bridge to Pacific Boulevard should be reopened to through traffic no later than September 1st, prior to the start of the new school year. There will probably be some remaining sidewalk repairs and cleanup work taking place after that, but the street will remain open during this work.”
The reconstruction of that section of Queen started in June. By July 1 sections of the road were closed to through traffic. Signs said businesses were open, but they were hard to reach, and two I checked last week said their business had suffered.
On Wednesday morning, most of the intersections of Queen east of Liberty Street were impassable and closed to traffic.
At Lawnridge Street, there was the customary sign that businesses were open, but you couldn’t get through unless, like me, you were on a bike.
In any case, it looks like most of the traffic and business hassles with this street reconstruction should be at an end in about a couple of weeks. (hh)
I don’t think the construction will be done by September 1st, but, if enough pressure is put on them, maybe they will get enough done so that Queen Ave. will be driveable by then.
Seems like K&E Excavating doesn’t give a flying shit to the local business around and off queen such as Fay’s Cafe. They need to reopen queens so the local businesses all around can get the business they rightfully deserve! Put pressure onto the contracted companies to get the work done, because the businesses are suffering!!
You know you can get to the business like Fey’s, Dari-Mart, and Reed’s from Elm? The only businesses that technically is fully blocked is the little strip mall next to Rigoberto’s.
I thank K&E’s workers for doing the hard work they are doing to give us a quality street for years to come. Hardworking construction workers shouldn’t be chastised cause you need to drive a little out of your way.
I can’t wait until this project is done!
Then y’all can go back to bellyaching about how bad the roads are…
Do you really think the repair to Queen is the only road in need of repair? You need to get out and about more!
So glad to hear this! Thank you!
Road “re-construction” is always a hassle and definitely can put businesses in the zone in a financial pickle. But the infrastructure on Queen has been long overdue. I lived on Queen near Waverly for about 2.5 years and often took this route to work in Corvallis via Oakville or Riverside. Be patient folks. In the end it will be better for everyone.
I realize that Queen gets a lot of traffic however the bus routes have not been addressed at all 12th Street is in complete shambles I’ve literally seen city workers drive up dump asphalt into holes and drive over it to pack it in in a regular City truck and then drive away and call it good. The excessive amount of crack filling on Pacific is extremely slippery in the rain . As a dash delivery driver I can tell you there are so many roads that are in disrepair that are not being repaired they’re only being patched it’s not a solution to the problem the city really needs to address all the streets. And stop focusing on creating infrastructure that the city can’t handle.
YES, life gets messy & INCONVENIENT we complain about it, we clean it up, then we bitch about the cleaning up…I bet with a bit of neighborly boost & caring PATIENCE those businesses will bounce back. Just so happy to see some of those miserable roads being ‘ cleaned up.
Hasso, thank you for the update. I use Queen Ave. daily and have respectfully obeyed the road closed signs. But most people just ignore them. I have been wondering what was up.