Chandler Bikeway to be extended, connect with Burbank Channel Bikeway
Burbank is inching closer to closing the bicycle infrastructure between the city and Los Angeles County.
The Burbank City Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday to approve a roughly half-mile extension of the Chandler Bikeway that will connect to the downtown Burbank Metrolink station.
Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy was absent.
The project is estimated to cost about $3.3 million and will be funded through a grant from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a local match from Measure R funds, said David Kriske, Burbank’s assistant community development director of transportation.
While it may be a short extension of the Chandler Bikeway, design and construction of the project is expected to take about 4½ years.
The bikeway extension will begin on Chandler Boulevard and will be divided into several segments.
The first segment will stretch along Chandler from Mariposa to Lomita streets, at which point the existing bikeway will be extended toward Lomita until it reaches a railroad right-of-way.
From there, the bike path will turn onto Victory Boulevard toward Cypress Avenue, where the city will build a bikeway that will protect bicyclists from vehicles.
The extension will then travel along Cypress toward the Burbank-Western Flood Control Channel and will connect to the Burbank Channel Bikeway, which is currently under construction.
This past October, the city broke ground on a three-quarter-mile extension of the Burbank Channel Bikeway that will stretch from Olive to Alameda avenues and provide a path to the downtown Metrolink station.
This segment of the Burbank Channel Bikeway, which is scheduled to be completed in July, will help the city expand its bicycle infrastructure to the Burbank/Glendale border and connect to other bike paths in the county, Kriske said.
“This completes the existing bikeway network gap, improves mobility for all ages, and we [will] build better neighborhoods with this project,” Kriske said.
“When asking our residents about what improvements they want to see in terms of bike and pedestrian access, the Chandler Bikeway has been at the top of the list,” he added.
