Eyes on the Street: Culver City’s New Higuera Street Bridge

Culver's Higuera Street Bridge replacement project widened the bridge including widened sidewalks, plus added a new access ramp to the Ballona Creek path below, new protected bike lanes, and a new mid-bridge belvedere

By Joe Linton

3:28 PM PDT on July 11, 2023

Culver City’s new Higuera Street Bridge over Ballona Creek. Photos by Joe Linton/Streetsblog

LongBeachize_Ad_Concepts — This article supported by Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney as part of a general sponsorship package. All opinions in the article are that of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of LABA. Click on the ad for more information.

Culver City recently opened the newly reconstructed Higuera Street Bridge over Ballona Creek. The project widened the bridge, adding one new travel lane for drivers, plus widened existing sidewalks and added a new access ramp to the creek path, new protected bike lanes, and a new mid-bridge belvedere (overlook).

Construction on the new bridge began in 2021, and the completed bridge re-opened in mid-May.

According to Culver City Senior Civil Engineer Sammy Romo, the overall project cost was $11 million, which included the $8.3 million bridge replacement, the $1.36 million bike ramp (Ballona Creek Bike Path Connectivity Project at Higuera Street), and $1.4 million for combined construction management for both projects.

New bike lanes on the bridge extend past the bridge abutments to span the entire long block from Jefferson Boulevard to Eastham Drive.

The widened Higuera Street Bridge deck includes new plastic-post-protected bike lanes

The downstream side of the Higuera Bridge features a new shaded belvedere overlooking Ballona Creek

The bridge project included a new bike/ped ramp facilitating access to the Ballona Creek path below

The bottom of the new Ballona path access ramp

New bike lanes on Higuera extend from Jefferson Boulevard to Eastham Drive

The bridge project includes a short (~150-foot) stretch of sidewalk bike path between the bridge and Eastham Drive (allows for cyclists exiting the path to cross Higuera at a new crosswalk at Eastham)

Higuera Street has a center median left-turn pocket for westbound cyclists to access the new creek path entry ramp. Culver has a similar bike left turn facility on Duquesne Avenue.

The new Higuera bridge project is not a massive step forward for walking and bicycling, but includes the kind of sensible accommodation that should be routinely included in multi-million dollar infrastructure upgrades (but is routinely missing from too many Metro and L.A. City projects). Sadly, Culver City, which had been a leader in these sorts of smart bike/walk project components, is now in the process of dismantling its ambitious downtown Move Culver City project.