Driving into Albany on the Ellsworth Street Bridge on Friday night felt different, somehow. Then I saw the reason: All the overhead lights on the bridge were out, plunging the deck into darkness cut only by the headlights on the truck.
Take a walk some time on the Ellsworth Street Bridge across the Willamette River in Albany and you’ll notice a thing or two. Or maybe not, so let me point them out.
If you’re going to ride a bike around Albany for any length of time, sooner or later you’re going to want to cross the Willamette River.
Most of the time, the 95-year-old Ellsworth Street Bridge on the Willamette River works just fine, but sometimes you wish it had another lane, or Albany had another bridge.
So what’s this bridge work that ODOT is telling us about on message boards at Albany’s two Willamette River crossings? In short, it’s a matter of fixing damaged beams on the Ellsworth Street span.
ODOT adds cameras at key Albany junction
One of these days, and probably soon, drivers will be able to check before they start out if there’s congestion on Highway 20 at the junction with Spring Hill Drive in North Albany.
Tags: Albany-Corvallis Highway, Ellsworth Street bridge, ODOT, Spring Hill Drive, traffic camera, Trip Check