No sign of construction yet on Tuesday evening on the future “plaza street,” the west end of Water Avenue.
When construction on the Albany Waterfront Project started in the spring of 2023, a chart produced at an open house anticipated that the project would be completed by November 2024. Now the work will extend far into 2025.
One part of the project, rebuilding Monteith Riverpark, was completed in time for Independence Day two months ago.
The other major element, reworking the west end of Water Avenue, has not yet gotten under way. I emailed City Engineer Staci Belcastro and asked her when construction on Water Avenue might begin.
“Pacific Power has a site walk scheduled next week, and I’ll have a better idea then when their work will be complete,” she replied via email. “Once Pacific Power and the other franchise utilities complete their work, K&E will be able to start work on Water Avenue. My best estimate is K&E will start work to complete the plaza street improvements in the spring next year.”
K&E Excavating, of Salem, has the $8,949,000 contract for the street work. (Its contract for Monteith Riverpark was for $8,361,700.)
The project design calls for three blocks of Water, from Washington Street to the Ellsworth Street Bridge, to be turned into a plaza street suitable for events. Placing overhead utility wires under ground is part of that, and Pacific Power has said it will bill Albany customers for the expense.
One additional block, between the Ellsworth and Lyon Street bridges, is to get gussied up as well. And east of the Lyon Street bridge, a new pedestrian railroad crossing has yet to be completed.
Now, if the plaza street reconstruction won’t start until next spring, I’m guessing it will be late summer before all that work is done. (hh)
The incomplete new rail crossing east of the Lyon Street Bridge, seen on Aug. 20, 2024.
“Pacific Power will bill customers for the expenses”… Which customers will be charged? Shouldn’t the cost of the project already include this work that Pacific Power needs to do? Albany taxpayers are already on the hook for the millions of dollars this project is costing, now some “customers” will be billed more? Did these customers agree to that? Hmmm…
All of us within city limits.
Take a minute and read Hasso’s past reports on this lunacy!
Wouldn’t it be great if they just cancelled the gussying up of Water Street and used that 9 million dollars to fix Albany’s potholes? I’ll bet there are no “events” lined up waiting to be held on a version of Water Street with fancy bricks and such and no phone poles and overhead wires!
What’s happening with the empty lot at corner of North Albany and Thornton? Lots of clearing and leveling going on.
YOU MUST UNDERSTAND….THE LIB’S HAVE THE MONEY & WILL SPEND EVERY LAST DIME…….OR MORE…PACIFIC POWER IS LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK…
Au contraire, it’s not just the “libs” spending the $$$ in the pot of gold at the end of the Albany citizens rainbow! There are plenty of “conservatives” as well ♀️
You are right. More than right. Albany is a conservative bastion, not a liberal one.
Any news on what Obie is planning to do with the property they bought from the city?
They haven’t bought it yet.
Greed is bipartisan and any political justification on either side is used to secure wealth at the expense of hard working tax payers. Compassion and goodwill are no longer free. The seduction of free funding makes the most selfish among us declare how much they care about all the unfortunate, vulnerable human ATMs and cash cows that they get funding for by supplying them with subpar aid. All they see is dollars signs for compassionate causes no matter who they vote for politically.
Thanks for the update, Hasso. I had been wondering about the pedestrian/bike railroad crossing just east of the Lyon Street bridge. Glad to hear it should be finished at some point. When on my bike coming I keep making the mistake of getting on the path under the bridges but then can’t easily get back to cross over into North Albany without having to backtrack a few blocks on Water Street first.
I’m hoping they will save a couple hundred dollars to apply non-skid on the wooden footbridge under the Lyon Street bridge……..