BURBANK : New Street Relieves Congestion at School

A Catholic high school had the will to solve a growing traffic problem and two local businesses helped provide the way: Pioneer Way, that is.

A 600-foot one-way road was opened across from Providence High School--where students call themselves the Pioneers--on Wednesday. It was paid for by the Walt Disney Co.--whose studio is across the street from the campus.

The city and nearby St. Joseph’s Medical Center donated the land.

Part of the problem is traffic from the studio, and part is backed-up cars from parents dropping off their children at school.

“The parents had been getting very frustrated and very upset,” said Sister Lucille Dean, the principal.

Even a “No Left Turn” sign put up by the city a year ago did not solve the problem.

Dean said the school had first approached Disney for help four years ago. With planned expansions by the studio, the traffic was expected to get much worse.

“You’d have to be here at the front of the school on a school day to really appreciate the problem here,” Burbank City Manager Robert Ovrom said.

The road runs between the hospital and the city’s Johnny Carson Park from a parking lot behind the high school. Disney spent $100,000 to build it.

“They are our neighbors and we were concerned,” said Bruce Berg, Disney’s director of development.

The sign for the new road is green and white--which students proudly point to as the school’s colors. They’re also the colors of a standard Burbank street sign.