West Hollywood’s Santa Monica Boulevard pedestrian crosswalk project, originally intended for completion by the middle of October, now looks as if it may not be done until Thanksgiving.
The project is largely completed. But a memo today from Hany Demitri, West Hollywood’s principal engineer, said that Southern California Edison will need three to four weeks to connect the meters that provide power to the crosswalks.
Each of the crosswalks will feature a stoplight synchronized to stoplights at major intersections along Santa Monica Boulevard. The synchronized lights will turn red and stop cars from moving forward while pedestrians use the crosswalks. And they will turn red and stop pedestrians from crossing while cars move through on the green lights. That is expected to reduce the risk of car collisions with pedestrians and to reduce traffic slowdowns caused by spontaneous pedestrian crossings.
The project began July 10 and has involved a complex process of installing traffic lights and connecting them with power, which has required removal of parts of sidewalks at the intersections and in some cases reshaping them. Another part of the project has involved creating turn lanes that allow drivers headed south on Westmount to turn left onto Santa Monica Boulevard and drivers headed west on Santa Monica Boulevard to turn left into the parking garage adjacent to LASC and Capitol Drugs and to reverse direction and head east on Santa Monica Boulevard.
In addition to the crosswalk on Santa Monica at Westbourne, the city is installing signalized crosswalks on Santa Monica at or near West Knoll, at Palm Avenue and Hancock Avenue.
Next week no work is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, although the contractor will temporarily remove the traffic control devices at Westmount Drive to accommodate the Halloween Carnaval crowd. They will be reinstalled on Wednesday.
On Thursday, tentative plans are for the contractor to begin the process of activating the Westbourne Drive / Santa Monica Boulevard intersection. This will require activating a red flashing light at the intersection between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The crosswalk at Santa Monica and Palm Avenue will continue to remain closed until the new intersection is operational.
You are right Robert but the 2 left turn lanes they added are for their developer cronies/donors (sprouts and the new development going in there collar and leash is). If I owned Ramada and they took that turn away from me, I’d be pissed. I guess that’s why the city gave them the free advertising (sign in the middle of the street)
“The synchronized lights will turn red and stop cars from moving forward while pedestrians use the crosswalks. And they will turn red and stop pedestrians from crossing while cars move through on the green lights. ” Yeah. You know. Stop lights. #jeez
Certainly seems like overkill. Saw the first 2 vehicle accident the other night opposite gym parking lot entrance. People are still darting across wherever they like day or night. The lighting is poor and hard to determine all the turn choices even if you are a resident. Would be iteresting to know the budget of this escapade.
“reshape intersections” That’s code for redesign the left turn lanes to add several more options for traffic coming off of West Mount. Let’s face it, the city used this “pedestrian safety improvement project” to fulfill a bunch of wishlist items for local businesses and alter the flow of Traffic on Santa Monica Blvd. A lot of the blocked left turns caused a lot of grumbling amongst the local businesses when they were put in. The City used this as an excuse to rethink their original decisions and accommodate the local businesses at the cost of the tax payers. This project… Read more »
Are these guys getting paid by the hour? If so, sweet gig. The Road is uneven, Traffic is a mess and they are always on a slow crawl to make s&$t happen. Put a cone here, take it away, have lunch. Smoke a cigarette, move a cone. Who’s getting kickbacks from this construction co?