Arcadia finally gets its own giant display of public art this weekend when the new $18.6 million Gold Line light rail train bridge officially opens with a Bridge Completion Ceremony starting in Newcastle Park at 10 a.m. Saturday featuring dignitaries and local officials.
Local dignitaries prepare to officially dedicate the bridge during formal ceremonies on Dec. 15.
The 584-foot bridge from the center divider over the eastbound lanes of the 210 freeway features Native American woven baskets depicted in concrete on each end, and the ribbed lines on the underside of the span rising nearly 20-feet above the moving traffic is meant to resemble the underbelly of a snake. The structure is the largest single public art/transit infrastructure project in California, and the first ever artist-designed transit bridge in the state. The artist who designed the bridge is Andrew Leicester, and Skanska USA Civil built the bridge under the direction of Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority and CEO Habib Balian.
Plaque on the bridge overpass.
The bridge, funded with tax money from Measure R, represents the first major completed element on the $735 million-dollar 11.5-mile extension of the Gold Line light rail from Pasadena, where it currently ends along the 210 freeway at the Sierra Madre Villa station, through five more stations in six cities including Arcadia with a station to be built on the northwest corner of First Avenue at Santa Clara, Monrovia, Duarte and ending in Azusa.
Construction begins next month on a new double-track bridge over Colorado Blvd east of Newcastle Park, which is expected to take about 10-weeks and be completed in mid-to-late March.
Dignitaries walk up ramp to make first official walk on the bridge.
Next will be the massive challenge of building a bridge over Santa Anita Avenue near Fasching’s Car Wash and Goldstein’s Bagels, where the current road will be dug out to go under the new bridge. Finally, the single-track bridge over 2nd Avenue will be replaced with a new bridge carrying sets of tracks in both direction. Demolition of buildings near Home Depot in Monrovia was recently completed to prepare the area for a maintenance yard.
Construction on the 210 freeway bridge began in April 2011 and it has been completed on time and on budget, generating a significant amount of employment and use of regional services to the local economy, according to Balian.
A formal completion ceremony was held Saturday, Dec. 15, with dozens of dignitaries in attendance, including Arcadia representatives Congresswoman Judy Chu. new Assemblymember Ed Chau, Arcadia Mayor Bob Harbicht, who offered the opening prayer invocation, Councilman Gary Kovacic, and City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto, among many other legislative reps and city officials from neighboring cities. The entire Rose Court was also in attendance,
— By Scott Hettrick