Gardendale Street Improvement Project

Location

Gardendale Street from Lakewood Boulevard to Garfield Avenue

City or County Responsible for Project

City of Downey

Category

Complete Streets Projects

Author

Julio Guerrero

Organization

City of Downey

Address

11111 Brookshire Avenue Downey, CA 90241

Phone

5629047110

Project Description

The Gardendale Street Improvement Project (Lakewood Blvd. – Garfield Ave) was completed to address the need for dynamic “complete streets” that adhered to the bicycle master plan of three agencies. It included rehabilitation of a secondary arterial street that could no longer be repaired through routine street maintenance due its deterioration to a state of disrepair thereby requiring a complete rehabilitation. Additionally, the street was to be re-striped to accommodate a road diet with a bicycle lane in each direction in compliance with the City’s bicycle master plan in an effort to establish a regional east-west bike travel connection between the Los Angeles and San Gabriel River bike paths. Other challenging aspects of the project included the geographical location and multiple funding sources of the proposed program. Certain portions of Gardendale Street traverse two other cities, Paramount and South Gate, requiring careful planning and collaboration among the agencies. Additionally, since a majority of the project was federally funded, there were strict project timelines and reporting requirements with Caltrans. Despite the challenges presented by this project, The Gardendale Street Improvement Project (Lakewood Blvd. – Garfield Ave) was able to succeed as a result of the joint and collaborative efforts amongst three public agencies: Downey (the lead agency), the City of South Gate and the City of Paramount. The common goal was to develop and implement a project that would benefit the community. Working in concert, the agencies developed a multi-agency cooperative agreement in an effort to address the complex structure of this arrangement. Among the terms of the agreement were cost sharing, roles and responsibilities of each agency, conditions and indemnity clauses. The project limit, a distance of approximately 1.7 miles, featured a road diet with class II bike lanes whereby the number of travel lanes was reduced from two to one in each direction to accommodate the width of the proposed bike lanes. A two-way left turn lane was installed to facilitate traffic safety and on-street parking remained unchanged in consideration of parking needs throughout the project limit. Bicycle lanes were designed per the requirements of each of the three agencies’ bicycle master plans. Once completed, the bike lanes assisted in establishing an essential regional bicycle travel connection between the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers as well as one high school, two elementary schools and a park along the project limits. Other project scope improvements included miscellaneous repair of concrete surfaces (curb and gutter, sidewalk, driveway approaches, curb ramps), potable water improvements, planting of trees and replacement of striping and pavement markings. The project improvements not only enhanced City infrastructure but promote active lifestyles by increasing the proportion of trips accomplished by biking and walking to local destinations.