La Puente and Hacienda Heights locals know Turnbull Canyon Road can be a slick alternative to Hacienda Boulevard and Seventh Avenue, with their attendant freeway ramps and five o’clock craziness. Turnbull is just more relaxed.
It starts at Valley Boulevard in City of Industry, crosses Gale Avenue, then climbs up to the toney neighborhoods in “the heights,” before descending into Turnbull Canyon itself. It’s a scenic way to get to and from Whittier… that is, if you don’t get stuck between Clark Avenue and Salt Lake Avenue waiting for a freighter to chug through the railroad crossing.
“They’ve stopped traffic for upwards of 10 minutes,” says Ricky Choi, Director of Government and Community Relations for the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG). “And there's been instances that we've caught on video where emergency vehicles are trying to try to get through, but they're stuck at the crossings.”
This key side street will be one of the last of 19 grade separations built in the SGVCOG’s Alameda Corridor East project slate.
“There were a number of recorded accidents and collisions at the crossing, fatalities and so forth” added Choi. “And so it will definitely eliminate, not just delays for motorists, but also the delays for emergency responders.” The grade separation will also help with reliability on the Metrolink Riverside line.
A look at the rendering (at the top of the article) shows the roadway will be elevated onto a large overpass structure, crossing above the at-grade rail. To the east there will be a separate, prefabricated steel pedestrian bridge with switchbacks. The pedestrian bridge is scheduled to be built after the vehicular bridge.
But that’s not all. Senior Project Manager John Beshay tells SBLA a third bridge will need to be constructed over the San Jose Creek. That’s because the overpass will be built right up to the existing creek bridge’s edge, bringing with it a lot of pressure.
The construction contract has been awarded to OHLA and the SGVCOG estimates a cost of roughly $69 million. State funding comes from S.B. 1 (gas tax), Section 190, the Port and Freight Infrastructure Program and local funding comes from Measure R and Proposition C. Construction is set to begin this Spring and end in 2027.
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