The project would add traffic lanes, bike lanes and sidewalks between Playa Vista and Marina del Rey
By Gary Walker
Caltrans will host a community meeting on Wednesday (March 28) to discuss plans for widening Lincoln Boulevard between Jefferson Boulevard in Playa Vista and Fiji Way in Marina del Rey. The heavily trafficked 0.6-mile stretch of Lincoln traverses the upper and lower segments of the ecologically sensitive Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.
The project, still in its early development stages, includes widening the Lincoln Boulevard bridge over Ballona Creek and the Culver Boulevard bridge over Lincoln.
Caltrans spokesman Karl Price said it was possible that the project would entail work that touches the wetlands, but everything is in the preliminary stages.
“We’re just taking questions tomorrow night and we hope to have answers to all the questions eventually,” he said.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is currently in the midst of its environmental review of Ballona Wetlands restoration plans.
“We will have a representative at the meeting on Wednesday night, and our habitat conservation branch is determining whether or not we will provide a comment letter,” said department spokeswoman Jordan Traverso.
Caltrans is considering two sets of plans.
The first would realign Lincoln and its Culver interchange to the east, expanding the Lincoln Boulevard bridge to accommodate three traffic lanes in each direction (instead of two) plus a sidewalk and bicycle lanes on each side. A new Culver bridge would maintain the existing traffic configuration but add a sidewalk and bicycle lanes to connect with the Ballona Creek Bike Path.
The other plan would maintain the existing Lincoln Boulevard alignment by widening the roadway on both sides to accommodate three traffic lanes, sidewalk and bicycle lanes over the bridge, while also widening the Culver bridge to include bike paths and a sidewalk.
Wednesday’s public meeting is at 6 p.m. in the Westchester Municipal Building Community Room, 7166 W. Manchester Blvd., Westchester.
“Caltrans spokesman Karl Price said it was possible that the project would entail work that touches the wetlands, but everything is in the preliminary stages.”
From page 384 of the draft EIR for the Ballona Wetlands:
“Widening of the bridge’s surface design to improve traffic flow; may result in wider sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and potentially a transit-only lane. No encroachment into the Ballona Reserve is anticipated.”
Seems as though CA Fish and Wildlife may not have communicated very well with CalTrans on assessing this potential cumulative impact.
This Sounds like a great Project that will be so beneficial to the general community. .
Adding car lanes only encourages more people to drive which eventually will be gridlocked again. I assume the bike lane is unprotected and does it connect anywhere other than Ballona Creek? And will the sidewalk be wide enough for people to actually enjoy walking where they are not constantly hearing car horns and having the cars drive too close to them?
Adding lanes is a response to the traffic that already exists. The induced demand theory is extremely flawed.
ANOTHER BONIN BOONDOGGLE
If this includes a bike lane, I’m all for it. We could then bike safely from Westchester to the bike path.
Can’t wait for Ballona Instiutute and the other professional mud dwellers come up with a way to make money off this. Donate Here, Rob Roy van der Hoeck needs a job!
Good idea as long as the sidewalk and bike lanes actually allow people to USE them. What I don’t want is the sidewalk to terminate abruptly at each end of the bridge. The designer need to think of use cases like ” I have a bike in my apartment building, can I actually ride it to a store in MDR. Can I walk from point A to point B? As long as the bridge is built with an integrated design and comets with proposed paths in the wetlands it could be a nice improvement.
But it will NOT help with car traffic. The added lanes only attract more cars and then it slows again.
Added lanes are needed to accommodate the traffic that already exists. With your logic, why have any traffic lanes at all?
This project has been much needed for time. I do hope rather than painted bike lanes they opt for protected ones. It would also be nice 8 lane the road instead of just six lanes. At any rate, the sooner this gets started the better. With the wetlands restoration and park project, this area is shaping up to be a great place and one I’m considering moving to.