The intersection of North Albany Road and Thornton Lake Drive on Friday afternoon. It will get photo enforcement cameras soon.
If you have been anticipating the new red-light and speed cameras on North Albany Road — has anyone? — the wait is almost over.
It was in December 2023 that the Albany City Council authorized the city police department to contract for the installation of red-light and speed cameras at three intersections that did not have them. One of the new camera setups was planned for North Albany Road at Thornton Lake Drive.
The council also approved the addition of speed cameras at Queen Avenue and Geary Street, which had only red-light cameras since 2007. The new photo enforcement cameras went active last Nov. 15, and police and court officials say initial problems of coordination between contractor Verra Mobility and the city court have been ironed out.
Police Chief Marcia Harnden told me earlier that the North Albany Road camera installation was waiting for a city permit.
This week Aaron Hiemstra, engineering manager in Albany Public Works, explained:
“The Albany Police Department’s’ vendor, Verra Mobility, has been working with Public Works on permitting work within the public right-of-way. This included looking at utility conflicts and location of the new equipment in the right-of-way. This review has been completed, and the permit was issued January 28.”
What about the installation, then?
“The work will begin, and we hope the camera will be online mid to late March,” Chief Harnden said. “The warning period will begin once everything is tested.”
Presumably there will be cameras looking in both directions on North Albany Road, where the speed limit is 40 mph but 20 mph from 7 to 5 on school days in the school zone on both sides of Thornton Lake Drive.
As the chief has explained before, state law says speed enforcement radar can get you a ticket if you go least 10 mph faster than the limit. The police have said their monitoring had shown a speeding problem on that road.
When the cameras are in place, we’ll find out if that’s still the case. (hh)
Can you get us some information on these:
How many of the cameras have been activated to date?
How many tickets have been actually issued?
Income vs cost?
How wonderful! The priorities of the City of Albany and APD are not those of the citizens who reside here. The two hot button issues in N Albany are currently the massive increase in the homeless population camping at Takena Landing in addition to those along the railroad tracks, and the impact of cramming middle housing into an already over stressed infrastructure.
APD also gave a fine demonstration of not practicing what they preach as I witnessed one of their vehicles blow through the NAE/NAMS school zone around 12pm on Friday.
my comment about our police state is not fit to print.
Here’s an idea: Follow the Law. Or is that too hard for you?
Here’s an idea. Why do business with an unscrupulous vendor? Just google “Verra Mobility Corp lawsuits” Because red light camera operators are always within the law and would never do anything to boost profits.
I don’t understand why Albanians are so camera shy. Remember, they (Deep State) only takes your picture if you’re breaking the law. If that claim is true, then law abiding citizens who claim to “back the blue” would not object to having these cameras at each and every controlled intersection, including 2-way stops, 4-way stops, Yield signs and any others I may have forgotten. Come on, Albanians…get behind traffic enforcement before it gets behind you.
If they catch people on their phone while speeding through s school zone, that should be an additional charge! Put your phones down!
What about Holiday and school closures? Is it still 20 mph?
No. The cameras are supposed to be synchronized with the school calendar.
The speed limit on N Albany Road is going to be decreased in the near future anyway – not because of any City or Police camera action, but because of traffic: more housing in the North will bring more vehicular demand for road space which will naturally cause a slow down all along the way from Gibson to Hickory. The development along Thornton, Gibson, and whatever is going to go in next to NAMS will be the cause. So, enjoy your 40 MPH speed limit while you can.
Who’s gets the money from tickets. Benton county or Linn county.