CAMPO/AAMPO
These are acronyms for the Corvallis and Albany Area Metropolitan Planning Organizations, established per federal statute when urban areas have populations of 50,000 or more. Philomath is included in the Corvallis Area MPO and Jefferson, Tangent and Millersburg are part of the Albany Area MPO. Each MPO has a technical advisory committee comprised of city, county and state DOT staff and a policy board of city and county elected officials and state DOT representatives.
Summer 2025
Conifer connection between Corvallis bike network and Albany bike path: The CAMPO TAC will review funding an alignment study.
Spring 2024
Ellsworth bridge (Hwy 20) in Albany: workers will be working to raise the steel superstructure of the bridge to reduce truck collisions and damages. Work will be done at night with the bridge closed and traffic routed to the adjacent Lyons Street Bridge which is usually for just westbound traffic. There will be flaggers and signage to direct traffic, including nighttime cyclists. The Ellsworth bridge will be open during the day. How clean and debris free the bridge will be is not known so if you use this crossing, be aware of possible tire eating materials! Work starts this Sunday and will continue into the summer. The blinking warning lights (activated by cyclists alerting drivers to expect cyclists are on the bridge) have been disconnected during this project.
Fall 2023
Highway 20/34 Coordination Updates — there were recent staff and consultant meetings from which conceptual designs will be shared with committees in November and then the public in 2024 winter/spring. The focus will be pedestrian crossing safety and getting city, County and state agreements on future improvements. No changes to vehicle lanes are expected even though there’s expectation for travel growth.
Permanent Bike Counter Proposal — there are now three permanent Bike counters which are considered more accurate than the temporary ones used. There’s a $20,000 budget to site and operate them. Their purpose is to provide backup data for grant applications and project designs. OSU is willing to provide labor and materials to help stretch the budget. No decisions made as to where the counters should be placed. Discussed bike paths; I suggested bike lanes, new and/or updated road corridors.
STP Amendments — Added $1.2 million in climate funds for Albany Corvallis bike path, Melroy to Scenic Drive planning/design for 2024 by Benton County & ODOT.
Add signal work at Western and 3rd and 4th street signals for safety issues during 2026. There was a fatality at 3rd recently.
Chapel Drive completion lauded. Gary Stockhoff said that the next project is a roundabout at 53rd and Country Club.
ODOT— looking at bike lanes and roundabouts for 99W, south town. ODOT will finalize 99W South schematic plans for improvements from Goodnight Drive north to Western . Announced the temporary bridge at Van Buren should open in November (see separate report on Van Buren Bridge).l
Working with Lane County on 99W bike lane and potential use of Bailey railway ROW for biking purposes.
Summer 2023
The AAMPO Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) approved the AAMPO Bike/Pedestrian Plan at its March meeting and it was subsequently approved by the policy board at its April 26, 2023 meeting with no discussion. The plan has been through several drafts since 2021 by a series of staff members. It has had a very decent degree of public involvement in the first year and a half. Since the Albany Bike/Pedestrian Advisory Committee has been dissolved, it’s very uncertain as to who will do any advocacy unless it’s us.
Spring 2024
A Hwy 34/Philomath Blvd corridor study has been discussed during recent CAMPO TAC meetings. Staff are working out the details of the content and extent of what the corridor study will address. A Conceptual Design Plan for Philomath Blvd 15th Street to 53rd Street will be released May 2024 and made available for community review and response.