Metro officials present updated plans to overhaul troublesome railroad crossings
During a community meeting on Thursday, Metro officials presented an updated traffic analysis and proposal for interim improvements related to an ongoing project to overhaul two troublesome railroad crossings on the Glendale-Los Angeles border.
Metro is looking to construct two overpass connectors as alternatives to two railroad crossings along San Fernando Road.
The first would link Salem and Sperry streets, splitting pedestrians and vehicles from trains at the Broadway/Brazil crossing. The second overpass, a P or J-shaped connector between Fairmont Avenue and West San Fernando Road, would accommodate emergency-vehicle and local business access.
The Metro’s board of directors previously agreed to the overpass designs that would ultimately close the at-grade railroad crossings, but asked staff for additional traffic studies and evaluation regarding the Fairmont portion, which are underway, before approval.
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Metro officials presented the most recent findings and collected feedback from the public during an hour-long Q&A session on Thursday. The discussion focused on proposed interim improvements to the Doran Street crossing that would begin in 2018 — but only if Metro officials approve both overpasses planned for 2020.
The short-term improvements come at the suggestion of the California Public Utilities Commission and would be done in advance of the overpass construction until their completion two years later.
They include an additional pedestrian crossing on the south side of Doran, upgrades to traffic signal equipment and automatic warning devices that would activate once a train approaches the crossing.
At the meeting, attendees asked about options for pedestrian travel and how long Doran Street will be closed for the interim improvements, among other issues.
“The goal for the interim improvements is to build as much of that as we can without touching the crossing while traffic is still coming across [Doran Street],” said Pat Somerville, project manager with HNTB, a Metro consultant. “There will be a point in time when we will have to close down. It’s hard to say at this point in time what that duration would be. Our initial estimate would be four to six weeks.”
Several attendees at the meeting asked Metro officials to do away with interim improvements and leave the Doran crossing open both ways until overpass construction is complete as a way to mitigate traffic problems.
Somerville said he would take that idea to the Metro board early next year, and he also suggested staggering the construction timelines of both overpasses to ease the amount of traffic disruption.
The full presentation and related material can be found by visiting https://bit.ly/2hg3qwX.
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Jeff Landa, jeff.landa@latimes.com
Twitter: @JeffLanda
