About this time last year, an osprey got public attention by regularly having his fish lunch on top of the tallest lamp post in the middle of the Lyon Street Bridge. This year the bird is back.
Several times a week, the bike takes me along Albany’s Dave Clark Path underneath the Lyon Street Bridge. Often I have wondered about those pipes going up the bridge pier. What are they for?
The long-anticipated night work to raise cross beams on the Ellsworth Street Bridge in Albany did not start Sunday night as ODOT had announced. Today, Monday, ODOT explained why.
For nearly 47 years, I’ve crossed the Willamette River on the Ellsworth Street bridge in Albany almost every day, usually driving a vehicle, and on rare occasions riding a bike.
“Have you noticed the osprey on the midspan light of the Lyon Street bridge?” the email from Patrick Hagerty asked. “It is there regularly eviscerating the catch of the day.”
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.
A dubious idea for the Lyon Street Bridge
The Lyon Street Bridge across the Willamette River has a bike lane and a raised sidewalk, each 6 feet wide. The City of Albany is contemplating a plan to combine them as a 10-foot wide multi-use path, the point of which is hard to see.
Tags: Ellsworth Street bridge, Lyon Street bridge, multi-use path, ODOT Community Paths