Eyes on the Street: Bike Lane Construction on Imperial Highway near LAX

L.A. City is installing new protected bike lanes on Imperial Highway, closing a 1,000-foot gap. The $1.9 million project is expected to be completed by October 2024.

By Joe Linton

3:14 PM PST on February 7, 2024

Under construction bike lanes on Imperial Highway. Photos by Joe Linton/Streetsblog

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The L.A. City Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) and Department of Transportation (LADOT) crews are constructing about a thousand feet of new protected bike lanes on Imperial Highway near LAX. The project has been in the works for more than a decade, but very little project information is available.

For many years there have been basic unprotected bike lanes on Imperial Highway east of the Aviation Boulevard C Line Station. In this area, Imperial has a posted speed limit of 50mph, which many drivers exceed. It's effectively an extension of the 105 Freeway. That freeway ends a mile east of the city's project, dumping drivers onto Imperial. It's not a pleasant place to bike, but it is one of very few roadways that connect to the coast through the somewhat impermeable airport-industrial area.

The existing Imperial lanes got within a half-mile of the beach, then dropped just east of Pershing Drive, leaving a ~1,000 foot gap before the bike lane resumed west of Pershing. Some signage directed cyclists to ride on the sidewalk.

Map of L.A. City Imperial Highway bike lanes project

According to LADOT spokesperson Colin Sweeney, the city's Imperial Highway project will "build 1,000 feet of protected bike lanes (in both directions) that will close the gap for cyclists traveling along Imperial Highway from Pershing to 1,000 feet east of Pershing."

In order to free up space for the bike lanes, the city is widening the roadway by shrinking parts of the landscaped median and the north sidewalk area along LAX. (The city is not shrinking the sidewalk itself, but rebuilding it a few feet closer to LAX.)

Per Sweeney, the project will include:

bollards along bike lanes
ADA compliant sidewalk along the newly built curb and gutter
restriping of travel lanes
median reduction and landscaping

Construction got underway in October 2023 and is expected to be complete by October 2024. The $1.9 million project is funded by $1.5 million in federal CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program) dollars, plus a $377,000 local match.

Below are photos of construction underway last month, plus some of the existing bikeway context nearby.