Eyes on the Street: Elysian Valley River Bridge Making Visible Progress

The city of Los Angeles’ new Elysian Valley walk/bike bridge is really taking shape.

The bridge is one of four new walk/bike bridges over the L.A. River’s central, relatively natural Glendale Narrows stretch. New North Atwater and Atwater Village bridges are already open. A fourth bridge from Glendale to Griffith Park is planned.

The Elysian Valley bridge will cross the river near the end of Altman Street, connecting Elysian Valley (aka Frogtown) to Cypress Park, where a large-scale river revitalization is planned at Taylor Yard, a former railroad maintenance facility. Elysian Valley bridge construction broke ground in June 2019 and is expected to be complete in 2021. The $21.7 million project is managed by the city of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering. Project funding is from a 1992 lawsuit against Metro, as community mitigation for construction of the Metrolink yard at the downstream end of Taylor Yard.

When Streetsblog L.A. checked in on the construction in December 2019, only bridge abutments were in progress.

In late July, the central pier wall and falsework were in place.

Today, with the main girder-box in place spanning the river, the bridge really looks like a bridge.

As is visible in the rendering above and in the photos above and below, the box itself is level, but the path slopes upward as one crosses northward from Elysian Valley to Cypress Park.

Construction in the river is made somewhat difficult by the need to keep construction activity out of the river during the rainy season, which typically starts in September. Crews will need to remove the falsework fairly soon.