Orange Street to Take a New Direction

After 30 years as a one-way thoroughfare, Orange Street will be converted to two-way traffic under action approved by the Glendale City Council this week.

George Miller, city public works director, said the change will ease access to parking garages at two new high-rise office development projects nearing completion.

Multilevel garages with space for more than 1,500 automobiles at two office projects--520 N. Central Ave. and 505 N. Brand Blvd.--will open onto Orange Street, Miller said. The first of the projects is expected to be completed by November.

Orange currently is a northbound street parallel to Central Avenue, the city’s most congested thoroughfare. The change from one-way to two-way was made on Orange as part of the city’s ongoing program to relieve congestion on Central and other streets in the downtown area. However, Miller said that because of additional traffic that will be generated from the two new office complexes, the impact on the traffic on Central “will be minimal, if at all.”

Mayor Larry Zarian warned city officials that hundreds of new office workers soon will be added to the thousands of commuters jamming already overcrowded streets. “It’s going to be pandemonium,” Zarian said.

Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said “traffic patterns are an absolute disaster.”

She urged city traffic engineers to study ways to lessen congestion, particularly at the intersection of Central Avenue and Milford Street where drivers attempting to enter or exit a fast-food restaurant frequently impede the flow of traffic.

Orange Street will be converted to two-way traffic between Milford and Doran streets within a few months by private developers at a cost of about $150,000, city officials said. The city will require more than six months to complete conversion on the remainder of the street between Broadway and Milford, Miller said. That project is expected to cost $170,000. Orange was converted to two-way flow south of Broadway following construction of the Glendale Galleria.