The long unused train bridge over Colorado Blvd west of Santa Anita Avenue will be demolished and removed sometime in March or April, according to Gold Line Foothill Extension officials.
That will be just a few months before the new “iconic” bridge over the 210 freeway is completed this summer, Foothill Extension Authority public affairs director Lisa Levy Buch told the group of community leaders gathered Thursday, Feb. 2, at the monthly Arcadia Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Forum. Since that bridge will once again bring train tracks over the freeway and into Arcadia, that means that a new bridge will need to be built to carry the Gold Line train over Colorado Blvd again when the line opens in 2015. The County was originally prepared to retrofit the Colorado bridge to make it earthquake-safe until Gold Line officials alerted the County that their money would be wasted on a bridge that was about to be torn down.
A third bridge in Arcadia must then be built to carry the tracks over Santa Anita Avenue near Fasching’s Car Wash.
Buch also revealed for the first time that a decision was recently made to build the 11.5-mile extension in reverse order from the end of the route in Asuza west to the current end of the line at the Sierra Villa station in Pasadena just west of Arcadia.
Work on the iconic bridge over the 210 will begin a series of as many as 20 consecutive late-night full closures of all eastbound lanes between Baldwin and Santa Anita Avenues weekdays from midnight to 5 a.m. that will continue through February and possibly into March. A lengthy temporary support structure, known as falsework, will be erected to create a secure work space over the lanes of the freeway for the entire span of the future 584-foot bridge crossing the freeway at a skewed angle. The falsework structure will create a temporary tunnel-like effect temporarily, as shown in the artist rendering at right.
On nights of full closures, eastbound on-ramps at Rosemead Blvd., Michillinda Ave. and Baldwin Ave. will close at approximately 9:00 p.m., lane closures will begin at approximately 10 p.m. and all lanes will re-open by 6 a.m. the following day.
Meanwhile, legislative groundwork is being laid to extend the Gold Line from Azusa beyond the L.A. County border to Montclair, with an eventual target destination of the L.A. Ontario Airport.
Further details about all the planned construction through Arcadia will be presented by the Foothill Extension Authority and Arcadia City officials at the Chamber’s annual Planning Conference from 8 a.m. – 12 noon on Thursday, Feb. 23 in the Director’s Room of the Santa Anita Park race track.
The Planning Conference, featuring a breakfast buffet, is open to all Chamber members and costs $25 per person. RSVP is required; call the Chamber at 626-447-2159. Retiring City manager Don Penman will present his final State of the City address at the conference, among several other planned presentations.
— By Scott Hettrick