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.
Don’t expect quick action on ways to ease traffic congestion on Highway 20 in North Albany and downtown. And as for a third Albany bridge across the Willamette? Not likely, certainly not in the lifetime of anyone reading this blog.
ODOT is inching ahead with plans for safety upgrades on the Albany-Corvallis Highway, and here is the agency’s concept for improving the junctions at Granger Road and Independence Highway.
Chances are drivers heading for the Ellsworth Street bridge on Highway 20 don’t need a sign to tell them they are entering Albany. But whether they do or don’t, the sign welcoming them to town is gone.
ODOT has followed through on changing an important lane marking on Ellsworth Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues. Now let’s see if Albany drivers get the hint.
“They must be kidding” was my thought when I first laid eyes on this new symbol in the middle of the right-hand travel lane of Albany’s Ellsworth Street downtown. But they’re not. Kidding, that is.
Benton: UP won’t allow bikeway underpass
It’s hard to say whether the long-planned but never built Albany-Corvallis Bikeway in Benton County is still a possibility, especially now that the Albany portion has to be reconsidered.
Tags: Albany cycling, Albany-Corvallis Bikeway, Benton County, Highway 20, Oregon cycling, Riverside Drive, Thornton Lake Road, Union Pacific