L.A. River Bikeway Construction and Closure

Construction Closure Sign at Fletcher Drive

Creek Freak brought you news earlier about the groundbreaking ceremonies on the Los Angeles River Bike Path segment through Elysian Valley. Today we sent our crack team of reporters and photographers out to the site to bring you the latest dirt on the project’s progress.

Some background for those of you who may be unfamiliar with this wondrous project: It’s cryptically officially known as the “Los Angeles River Bike Path Phase 1C” and unofficially known as the Elysian Valley segment of the Glendale Narrows river bikeway. Once complete it will extend about 3 miles from Fletcher Drive (which is kinda near the 2 Freeway) to Barclay Street (which is kinda near the 110 Freeway.) See a map of the future bikeway at the bottom of this earlier post. The project includes an undercrossing at Fletcher Drive.

Future Bike Path Construction - View downstream from Fletcher Drive Bridge

The good news is that construction is underway. This afternoon crews were ripping up a swath of the river’s concrete walls just downstream of Fletcher Drive. The way they worked was interesting. First they had made a couple parallel concrete cuts at the edges of the trajectory of the path. The large bulldozer vehicle was cracking concrete, and the workers on foot ahead of it were using acetylene torches to heat and break rebar embedded in the concrete. There were huge piles of misshapen rebar piled up in Rattlesnake Park. Also oodles of “urbanite” – an excellent material to re-use by building passive water harvesting earthworks in one’s garden (though it’s best to urbanite without rebar.) I was tempted to get a few pieces just to say that I have L.A. River concrete in my yard. I didn’t… yet.

I was impressed with how much rebar is embedded reinforcing the concrete. Here’s a photo of pieces sticking out, just upstream of Fletcher, in an area where the rubble had already been cleared away:

Rebar sticking out of the Concrete River Walls

Upstream of Fletcher, the crew had already started to build the forms for the future bikeway:

Wooden Forms for River Bikeway - Upstream of Fletcher Drive Bridge

The bad news is that, due to construction, the bikeway there is currently closed. The closed area is a little further upstream than creek freak expected. A portion of the existing bike path (between Fletcher and Glendale Boulevard) currently is being used to accommodate construction staging and parking. As of this afternoon, the upstream bikeway is closed at Glendale Boulevard:

Bikeway Closure just upstream of the Glendale Hyperion Bridge

Downstream, the unofficial access road that serves daily as a bikeway is closed at the 2 Freeway. Today there were both a water truck and a “construction traffic only” sign blocking the bikeway there. Access points at Fletcher Drive are also closed. While it is possible to pass through the area by staying down at the bottom of the slope (that would be Down by the Los Angeles River, no?) If you try this please be very careful! There is a very slippery slimy slope area where a stormdrain lets out at Fletcher Drive – it’s very very slippery! Very dangerous!

Clearly as construction progresses on the project, the entire stretch through Elysian Valley will see construction closures, too. The project should be completed by January or February 2010.

CICLE hosts Creek Freak River Bike Tour

Coming up on Saturday January 24th will be the LA Creek Freak River Bike Tour. The tour is hosted by Cyclists Inciting Change Through Live Exchange, known as CICLE. They’re an excellent organization that celebrates bicycling, helps newer riders get more comfortable riding, and more. (CICLE also hosts excellent classes that give beginners the skills needed to be confident in traffic – their next Traffic Basics class is scheduled for Saturday January 31st.)

CICLE's 2006 Los Angeles River Bike Tour, with Joe Linton at the megaphone, the scenic Glendale Narrows in the background.

The upcoming river tour will meet at 11am at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens in Cypress Park (570 West Avenue 26, Los Angeles, CA 90065.) There are driving directions here, or take your bike on the Metro Gold Line and exit the Lincoln/Cypress Station. From there, turn left onto Avenue 26 and go three blocks and the River Center is on your left.

The event is FREE (though you can donate, and/or buy raffle tickets.) It will be a leisurely-paced ~2-hour ride, nearly all on the Los Angeles River bike path. Creek Freak’s very own artist, author and champion procrastinator Joe Linton will lead the tour, stopping and talking about the river’s history, flora, fauna, and plans for the future. The ride will showcase the Glendale Narrows – the very nicest soft-bottom part of the river, with plenty of tall willow trees, fish, birds, and more. It will be an excellent introduction to the river, and an easy group ride for newer and less confident bicyclists.

For more information, see CICLE’s website.

River Bike Paths Coming to Elysian Valley and Reseda

Section View of West Valley Los Angeles River Bike Path - Construction Planned to Begin in April 2009 (Image courtesy LA City Bureau of Engineering, click on image to view 9MB PDF with additional views and details)

Next year, the city of Los Angeles will begin construction on two new segments of the Los Angeles River bike path. The bikeways in Reseda and Elysian Valley are expected to be completed in 2011.

Currently there are only two bikeway segments completed on the 32 miles of the Los Angeles River within the city: the Glendale Narrows bikeway (4.5 miles – from Riverside-Victory to Fletcher) and a portion of the Sepulveda Basin bikeway (about 0.2 miles riverfront miles in over 10 miles of park bike paths  - on both sides of the River at Balboa Boulevard.) Additionally, outside the city of Los Angeles, there are 17 miles of county bikeway along the lower Los Angeles River (from Atlantic Boulevard in the city of Vernon to the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach.)  Shameless plug alert: Impeccably thorough bikeway information for all eleven completed bike paths on the Los Angeles River and its tributaries is available in the guidebook Down by the Los Angeles River (Wilderness Press 2005) written by one of your friendly neighborhood creek freaks.

West San Fernando Valley Segment:

Concept Landscape Plan for West Valley Los Angeles River Bikeway (Image courtesy LA City Bureau of Engineering, click on image to view 9MB PDF with additional views and details)

The city of Los Angeles has planned a 2-mile segment of the Los Angeles River bikeway from Mason Avenue to VanAlden Avenue in the west San Fernando Valley. The bikeway will be on the south bank of the river and will include grade-separated underpasses at Vanowen Street, Winnetka Avenue, Corbin Avenue, and Tampa Avenue. This bikeway project is being done in conjunction with bridge retrofit projects at Tampa, Winnetka, and Vanowen.

The initial phase will include just the Tampa Avenue Bridge. The approximately 0.8-miles bikeway will extend from Corbin Avenue to Vanalden Avenue adjacent to the Westfield Promenade mall. Construction is scheduled to begin in April 2009, and won’t be done before late 2011. The construction is estimated to take 20 months, but is not permitted to proceed inside the river channel during the wet weather season.

The bulk of the bikeway project funding is from the Metro call for projects. In addition, the city received about $2M in Proposition 50 (state park bond) funding to enhance the bikeway with landscaping, a water quality bioswale, a planter wall, interpretive signage, and even fitness stations to help bicyclists warm up before their ride.

Elysian Valley Segment:

Map of Planned Elysian Valley Los Angeles River Bikeway (cropped from Los Angeles River Greenway map from LAMountains.com, click to view full 50KB PDF map)

Officially, this 2.7-mile bike path is called Phase 1C of the Los Angeles River bikeway. It extends from Fletcher Drive to Barclay Street.  That’s from just above the 2 Freeway to nearly the 110 Freeway. The stretch currently has an unimproved access road used unofficially by bicyclists and pedestrians every day, though the surface is uneven and there are about a half-dozen large dips where street ends drain directly into the river.  The old asphalt road is also damaged from the roots of adjacent cottonwood trees.

The project will extend the existing 4.5-mile Glendale Narrows bikeway to an uninterrupted total of 7.1 miles.  It will include an undercrossing at Fletcher Drive, resurfacing, and lighting.

In 1999, the city of Los Angeles applied for and received Metro Call for Projects funding for the Elysian Valley bikeway.  The project has been delayed by legal troubles due to a complicated antiquated easement issue. The Elysian Valley stretch is under a 1920’s era LA County Flood Control District easement. The limited easement would only allow for flood control projects, and, according to city attorneys, was not sufficient for the construction of a bike path. So, even though owners had already seen their property taken away for river channelization many decades ago, the city had to approach 66 individual property owners and negotiate transportation easements. Most property owners accepted the city’s initial compensation offers, but one property owner held out and took the city to court.

In January 2008, in Rabie v. City of Los Angeles, the court’s verdict was that the city had to pay Mr. Rabie $7,000 for the easement. This amount was only a little above the city’s last offer of $4,000, and much less than the $200,000 that Rabie was demanding. This verdict allows the bike path project to move forward to finalizing design.

 The city Department of Transportation is currently finalizing a lighting plan that will minimize risks of copper theft that have plagued other bikeway lighting installations. The final designs are anticipated to go out to bid in January or February 2009. Construction is expected to start in July 2009 and the path is projected to open in January 2011.

Ballona’s bike path: at a fork in the road.

 

Ballona bike path: A sore sight for the eyes.

A little over a week ago, a friend of mine got mugged while bicycling on Ballona Creek.  He was riding to work, commuting by bike as so many more of us could be doing in this city of fine weather.  Ballona Creek has a Class I (separated from traffic) bike path, albeit one marked by an aesthetic of human-dwarfing concrete.  He was mugged while riding the underpass below the 405 Freeway, a dark interlude on an otherwise blindingly bright path, one of several muggings that one day.  One of the muggers actually apologized to him, giving him the impression the action was a gang initiation.  At the same time, the police response was along the lines of “just don’t use the bike path.”  My friend later discovered that his crime on the creek never got placed on the LAPD’s crime map – the reason being it didn’t have an address.   

A mere few months ago, a nearby neighborhood was up in arms over similar crimes committed in their neighborhood, crimes which they attributed to young thugs who accessed their neighborhood via gates off the bike path.  This community rallied the support of the local councilman to have their access point locked off, to the dismay of the bicycling and environmental communities seeking to beautify and encourage use of the creek and bike path.  At the community meeting, the police indicated that locking the gate was their recommended solution.  It was frustrating that tales of crimes against bicyclists also surfaced (as well as non-bike-path related neighborhood jumpings), but were ignored.  (these stories and related posts can also be found on Streetsblog.)

And in between these two events, a local conservancy planning a new park which would provide a flash of beauty to the bike path’s current rather demoralizing aesthetics met with opposition from yet another neighborhood that feared the people who would be drawn to use the park.  I believe that subsequent meetings have progressed better than the initial one.  

 

Circa 2005 construction photo of Centinela overlook on Ballona Creek, a project of the Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority.

My point is that fear is alive and well on Ballona, and other, creeks.  We have a conflict over land management, one fueled by very real, frightening experiences and a larger collective rejection of our public spaces and neglect for our youth.  We need and deserve better responses from government than a bunker mentality that writes off open space and access for legitimate users.  We need to reclaim and invest in our public lands, and in our youth.  These kids, pressured into committing crimes by older kids, lack positive structures, supervision and role models in their immediate spheres.  We fail them with our feeble-minded lack of interest in them, and members of the public pay the price.  What is also surprising is that Ballona already has many legitimate users and that still didn’t act as a preventive. Obviously we need to take action to increase their safety: patrols, beautification, lights in places like the 405 underpass, creekside development.  Bad urbanism breeds the worst behavior in the most abandoned landscapes.  So let’s move forward with occupying and reclaiming them.  The Conservancies, Culver City, and some community groups from Mid-City to Playa del Rey have stepped up to the plate with good ideas and investments.  Now, LAPD, City of LA, and adults everywhere, we need you to step up too.

Stay tuned for some crazy – and not so crazy – ideas for a Ballona Greenway.

Conservancy Acquires LA River / Rio Hondo Confluence Parcel

Alina Bokde at the South Gate Site

I recently toured the Lower Los Angeles River with Alina Bokde of the RMC (that’s short for the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy.) We were showing some lower river sites to a pair of professors from Stockholm who are bringing urban design students here next year. Alina had some good news for me: her conservancy recently acquired an large riverside parcel located in the city of South Gate!

View Larger Map

The South Gate Riparian Restoration Project site is located immediately east of the confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Rio Hondo. It has long been considered problematic for development as automotive access is nearly impossible, due to the land being sandwiched between the 710 Freeway and the Los Angeles River. The RMC closed escrow on August 12th, paying $630,000 for the privately-owned 8-acre site (mostly from county “Prop A” park monies funds.) The city of South Gate is contributing another $1.5 million (also from Prop A) for design and construction of a multi-benefit natural park. North East Trees is just beginning design work; expected features include stormwater capture and treatment through vegetated bioswales. Also planned are benches, a walking trail and a rest stop for bicyclists on the adjacent South County LA River Bike Trail. The park is much-needed for these population-dense park-poor neighborhoods in southeast LA County.

The park will be operated and maintained by the RMC’s new JPA (Joint Powers Authority) called the WCA (for Watershed Conservation Authority – a joint powers authority between the RMC and the LA County Flood Control District.) and the project isn’t expected to be complete and open for another couple years. There doesn’t seem to be any information available online right now, but see the WCA’s website for information soon.