Just before tonight’s Arcadia City Council meeting, the Mayor and entire Council turned out this Tuesday evening, Dec. 1, to officially dedicate the Gold Line train bridge over Santa Anita Avenue near Fasching’s car wash and unveil two new lighted signs and colored lights across the bridge.
Mayor Gary Kovacic reminded the gathering of City and Gold Line officials, media, and members of a community committee to lobby for support of the bridge, that voters overwhelmingly approved the $12 million cost way back in 2006. That vote resulted in a massive project to lower a former rise in the road to meet the former freight train tracks and instead build the highest bridge over a city street on the Gold Line route.
At its peak after it begins service on March 5, the Gold Line could run as frequently as every 5-8 minutes, which would have caused many traffic delays on the busy Santa Anita Avenue. The bridge is the only new one approved by any of cities along the 11.5-mile extension route from Pasadena to Azusa.
But since the bridge was completed many months ago, it was the signs and bridge lights that most of the attendees were anxious to see. Mayor Kovacic pulled the rope to release a cloth covering the lighted signs on the abutments alongside the southbound and northbound lanes of the road.
The signs feature the word “Arcadia” in a font resembling the iconic Arcadia signs of yesteryear that used to hang over a couple city streets in Arcadia. Below the city name is the familiar peacock logo of the city. Each sign features lights that change colors from blue to green to orange to purple, for example.
The bridge itself features its own lights running in a horizontal line over Santa Anita Avenue that change from many combinations of colors, most notably red and green during this holiday season. Others demonstrated were red, white and blue, and blue and white.
Officials said they may also be lighted to reflect a specific color relating to a major news event, such as the colors of the French flag in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
Also new is a large plaque on the bridge wall along the sidewalk on the west side of the street.
The plaque notes the names of the current Mayor and City Council as well as the former Council members when the bridge was approved, committee members, and other City staff.
— By Scott Hettrick
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