The Board of Supervisors has approved a request from the County Department of Public Works to take over jurisdiction on the project to seismically retrofit transit bridges on Colorado Boulevard and Huntington Drive/Second Avenue. The board declared the portion of Colorado Boulevard under the bridge, as well as portions of Huntington Drive and Second Avenue under the transit bridge, to be part of the county system of roads and highways.
Roger Chandler, Gary Kovacic, Gail Marshall, Mickey Segal and John Wuo sent a joint letter to the editor in the "Your View"section of Pasadena Star News to urge Arcadia voters to vote yes on Measure A on April 11, 2006.
A proposed 739-feet bridge to span the eastbound 210 freeway diagonally from Santa Anita Avenue may become a landmark gateway sign welcoming people to the San Gabriel Valley. If Measure R funding comes through for this project, construction could begin in Fall 2010. Artists are being asked to submit proposals for the bridge design by the end of next month. Total cost of the bridge is estimated at $20 million and selected artists will receive a $20,000 budget to design the bridge.
The City Council decided to ask voters to approve $8 million in bond funding for a bridge at Santa Anita Avenue. If 2/3 of voters support this bond, Arcadia would be the only city on the Gold Line extension route to finance its own grade separation.
Santa Anita Avenue carries 33,000 cars a day. If a train bridge is not built, the road will be blocked about every five minutes during rush hour. Measure A would allocate $8 million to build a Gold Line train bridge for the Gold Line extension. The bond measure would cost property taxpayers about $7 per year for every $100,000 of assessed valuation. Although the bond measure has many vocal supporters, this city has traditionally resisted new taxes.
Measure A, an $8 million bond measure to fund a train bridge over Santa Anita Avenue, will need a 2/3 vote to pass. Citizens will need to form a committee to build support for this measure, to be voted on on April 11, 2006.
Artist Andrew Leicester, 61, has been chosen to design a bridge meant to be an iconic gateway to the San Gabriel Valley along the Gold Line Foothill Extension. The bridge will cost an estimated $20-25 million to build. Leicester, who is based in Minneapolis, plans to incorporate artistic traditions from the Native American tribes of the San Gabriel Valley (Chumash and Gabrielenos a.k.a. Tongva), and references to the region's native animal and plant life, into a contemporary structure.
Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority officials unveiled a San Gabriel Valley-themed design for a rail bridge honoring local wildlife and native cultures. The span of the 739-foot bridge will stretch diagonally across the 210 Freeway to Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia. It will be adorned by four basket-shaped columns and the bridge itself will have individual grooves resembling the scales of a snake. Andrew Leicester is the artist and designer.
A tile tapestry was unveiled on the northwest wall of the Arcadia Public Library on Friday, April 8, 2005. More than 200 individual tiles were painted by the public to depict life in Arcadia. A photo is included.