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BRIEF REPRIEVE FOR HISTORIC NORTH SPRING STREET BRIDGE
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In response to Conservancy advocacy alerts, the City received more than seventy letters this summer supporting the preservation of the historic North Spring Street Viaduct. Many people also attended June hearings of the Board of Public Works and City Council Transportation Committee to speak out against the proposed widening project that would destroy the bridge's historic integrity. The Transportation Committee voted to postpone its consideration of the Final EIR for at least 30 days to allow time for the Bureau of Engineering, Office of Historic Resources, and the Conservancy to develop and explore alternatives that would maintain the bridge's Historic-Cultural Monument status. Several members of the committee expressed concerns about the BOE’s failure to include any preservation alternatives in the EIR. As a direct result of your advocacy, the Bureau of Engineering has since delayed its pending request for state funding that had dictated the City’s rushed schedule for final approval. The City is now considering widening the bridge on only one side. This is a significant step, though it is not yet clear if this approach would retain the structure’s HCM status. The city's Bureau of Engineering (BOE) is rushing to approve a project that would dramatically widen the 1929 North Spring Street Viaduct -- nearly doubling its width, stripping away all historic ornamentation, and eliminating the bridge's eligibility as a city landmark. After years of inaction, the BOE is now scrambling for quick approval of this project in order to qualify for $5 million in state funds. The Conservancy has been advocating for an alternative that would retrofit the historic bridge and construct a separate pedestrian-cyclist bridge alongside it. 1) You can’t put a price tag on our heritage.
A pedestrian-cyclist bridge would provide greater safety for children, adults, and cyclists crossing the river by separating them from vehicular traffic. A stand-alone pedestrian-cyclist bridge could connect directly to this park, enhancing connectivity for communities in Lincoln Heights and William Mead Housing. For more information, visit the Albion Park Project website.
After languishing for years, the proposed widening of the viaduct is suddenly on the fast track for approval. Although environmental review for the project started nearly four years ago, the project is now on an extraordinarily accelerated timeline, with the BOE rushing to receive City Council approval by June in order to keep state matching funds that are about to expire. The project would be funded primarily through the federal Highway Bridge Program, augmented by state and local funds provided through Proposition 1B and Proposition C. The BOE’s primary justification for the project is to upgrade the bridge to meet “major highway standards” and to add pedestrian-bicycle lanes in both directions. In addition to stripping all existing ornamentation, the scale and dimensions of the bridge will be dramatically altered by nearly doubling its current width from 50 feet to 90 feet. No new traffic lanes will be added. Although environmental review for the proposed widening project started nearly four years ago, the BOE didn’t release the draft environmental impact report (EIR) until March 2010. Less than three weeks after the close of the public comment period, the city issued a hastily prepared final EIR in May. The primary justification for the project is to upgrade the bridge to meet “major highway standards” and add pedestrian lanes in both directions. The current four-lane bridge would be widened by approximately twenty feet on each side to accommodate new eight-foot-wide sidewalks, five-foot-wide shoulders, and a center median with left-turn lanes at each end. Traffic capacity would remain the same. The Conservancy’s initial comments on the project, submitted in October 2006, sought detailed consideration of an alternative that would leave the historic bridge intact and construct a stand-alone pedestrian crossing alongside it. This option was quickly rejected by BOE without full analysis in the draft EIR, even though the city is favoring a similar approach for upgrading the Riverside-Zoo Drive Bridge.
In reviewing the North Spring Street Viaduct project on April 15, 2010, several members of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission expressed anger and frustration over the compressed timeline for the project and their apparent powerlessness to alter its course. “I feel that we have our hands tied behind our backs,” lamented Commission President Richard Barron, “and we’re watching the guillotine smash [the viaduct]. It’s sad, it’s sad. In addition to limiting opportunities for meaningful public comment, the hastened project schedule has contributed to significant errors and omissions in the draft EIR. It fails to acknowledge the bridge’s status as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and, consequently, does not evaluate the project’s potential impacts on HCM eligibility. Such oversights cast serious doubt on the city’s willingness to thoroughly consider less harmful preservation alternatives to the proposed project. After reviewing the project in May, the Conservancy’s board of directors unanimously voted to make preservation of the North Spring Street Viaduct a priority. We have been coordinating our advocacy efforts with residents, stakeholders, and community groups on both sides of the Los Angeles River, with many attending a June 2 Board of Public Works hearing on the final EIR. With the final City Council vote anticipated in mid-June, Councilmember Ed Reyes (whose district includes the bridge) has not publicly stated his position on the project.
Construction on the North Spring Street Viaduct began in 1927, seventeen years after the completion of the adjacent North Main Street Bridge (HCM #901) and North Broadway Bridge (HCM #907). Designed by John C. Shaw, the crossing was built to relieve traffic along the North Broadway Bridge. Its design was intended to complement the classical motif of these two earlier works, linking the three spans as a thematic sub-group that connects Lincoln Heights to downtown Los Angeles. The reinforced concrete viaduct rests on three large vertical piers forming two elegant arch spans. The deck features a sculpted concrete railing with incised rounded arches between decorative lamp posts, each topped by an octagonal-shaped lantern. The bridge was widened in 1939 with the removal of the southern sidewalk. In 1992, along with retrofitting, extensive repairs where made to the viaduct’s distinctive balusters, electroliers, and railings. The viaduct was designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #900 in 2008.
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