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(rshsdepot) Albany,OR



Photo links:
http://shastaroute.railfan.net/Photos/Amtrak/08950.jpg  (Amtrak train in
station)
http://shastaroute.railfan.net/Cards/Albany_2.jpg (historic photo, circa
1914)
http://shastaroute.railfan.net/Cards/Albany_1.jpg (historic photo, early
20th Century)

Two bridges, tunnel scratched from Albany railway depot remodel

By Hasso Hering
Albany Democrat-Herald

Two bridges and a tunnel crossing have been axed from the plans to remodel
Albany's train depot as a transportation station for trains, buses, cars,
transit, bikes and people on foot.
One of the parts dropped is a $3.3 million cable-stay bridge to carry
pedestrians and bike riders across the rail yard from the train depot to
Industrial Way. Another is a $2.5 million footbridge across Pacific
Boulevard from the station to Ellsworth Street. A crossing under the tracks
at Jackson Street also has been scratched for the time being.
Guy Mayes, the city engineer in charge of the station project, gave the City
Council a status report Monday. He asked for approval to proceed, and there
was no council dissent.
As it stands, the city is proceeding with a "construction package" estimated
to cost more than $14.5 million. The bridges, the Jackson Street crossing
and several other pathways, which also were dropped, would have jacked up
the project cost to more than $25 million, according to Mayes' report.
Congress has approved $9 million toward the project. An additional $2.6
million will come from a state highway bond program and pay for improving
the Lyon Street underpass near the depot. Amtrak, the National Rail
Passenger Corp., is supposed to contribute $1 million, and the city is
contributing $1.3 million from utility, transportation and park funds for
expenses related to those funds.
Financing assured so far totals just under $14 million. Public Works
Director Floyd Collins said the city has been talking to Congressman Peter
DeFazio, D-4th District, who engineered the original grant, about getting
additional grant money.
The plan is to remodel the station property in two phases. The first phase
is to be done in 2003, the second in 2004, and the work should be finished
in 2005.
The plan calls for the station building to be restored inside and out and
the nearby former Railway Express Agency building to be fixed up on the
outside only. The parking lot will be landscaped, improved and extended to
the south. The intersection of Pacific and 12th will get a new signal.
The city will have to acquire the depot property from the Union Pacific as
well as two neighboring properties to the south, one of them occupied by
Napp Feed, the other vacant.
Mayes said negotiations with the local property owners were going well, but
talks with the Union Pacific were on a "slow track." The city does not have
the power to condemn property of a working railroad.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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