By Barry Lank for The Eastsider
Originally published March 5, 2025
A bustling stretch of Cesar Chavez Avenue from the 10 Freeway to Evergreen Cemetery — including a row of restaurants and small shops — will be altered over the next couple of years with nearly $13 million worth of pedestrian improvements.
Cesar Chavez between Brittania Street and Evergreen Avenue will be improved with pedestrian lighting, traffic signals and striping, loop detectors that sense vehicles arriving, and corner bump-outs that slow down turns, according to Mary Nemick, spokesperson for the city’s Department of Engineering. The street will also get sidewalk repairs, curb ramp reconstruction, road resurfacing, new trees, and more.
Pedestrians should end up with shorter distances for crossing the street, better visibility of traffic, and calmer vehicular traffic, according to Nemick and a motion approved by the City’s Board of Public Works.
This project is part of the Great Streets Initiative that Eric Garcetti launched while he was mayor. Seventeen other corridors across the city will get similar improvements, according to the LADOT.
The contract for the Cesar Chavez project was awarded to Access Pacific, Inc late last month for $12,976,965. Construction is expected to start around three months after that, according to George Wong with the Bureau of Engineering, in his presentation to the city’s Department of Public Works. The duration of the contract is two years. So the anticipated date for finishing construction is approximately February 2027, Nemick said.