Long-Promised Bike Lanes on the Spring Street Bridge Could Be Coming Soon

The effort to get bike lanes placed on the North Spring Street Bridge in Downtown Los Angeles has been a long and tortured one. However, that road may be coming to an end, with the bike lanes finally added.

Streeetsblog reached out to the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering after an alert reader noticed that the Spring Street Bridge project is no longer listed as active on the Bureau’s website. One of the bureau’s engineers responded that the city is still planning to add the lanes soon, and they may be added “early in the fiscal year” that begins on July 1.

“We are still intending to stripe the bike lanes on the Spring St Bridge even though the project contract itself is completed,” explains Kevin Minne with the Bureau’s Bridge Improvement Division.

“The striping work itself will be performed by city crews. The block between Avenue 18 and Avenue 19 is scheduled for resurfacing by the Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) this coming fiscal year (FY22/23) and the intention is to have the bike lanes installed when that resurfacing is completed. BOE and LADOT are working with StreetsLA to have this block done early in the fiscal year so we can finish up the striping. I hope to have a clearer idea on the schedule in the coming weeks.”

This is certainly good news, as advocates worried the project being removed from the Bureau’s website meant that no further work would be done on the bridge. However, the good news comes with a note of caution, as these bike lanes were promised to be completed in a “couple of months” in April of 2021, “next week” in October of 2021, and “when Gil Cedillo thinks it’s safe” in December of 2021. Cedillo had ‘safety concerns’ with the proposed bike lanes as they didn’t connect to other existing lanes. The connecting lanes on Avenue 18 and Avenue 19 appear to have been enough to assuage his concerns.

The North Spring Street Bridge (officially the North Spring Street Viaduct) is located just north of downtown Los Angeles, spanning the L.A. River, connecting Lincoln Heights and Chinatown.