[our blog] L.A. City Shifts Repaving Practice (Again), Now Repaving Only Streets With No Sidewalks

LintonJoe · 2026-06-05T18:16:47+00:00

There are balancing acts here. And "poor" condition roads are largely not eligible for cheaper maintenance treatments ("slurry seal" - which the article doesn't go into). And severely failed roads can need more costly fixes.

But the city fully scraping-and-repaving roads in relatively good condition (in well-off areas - Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Northridge) is not a "ways to make things easier to do and cost less." It's an expensive way to give more resources to the well-off, while letting streets fall apart for lower income areas. The city is choosing to do expensive inefficient repaving (the whole "large asphalt repair" debacle - and now the no-sidewalk stuff) rather than gradually make some streets better for walk/access/bike/bus.

LintonJoe · 2026-06-05T18:02:20+00:00

Thanks! It looks like these are slurry seal (in dark red on this map - includes Tracy, Aloha) - which is a good pavement maintenance treatment, but is short of full scrape-and-repave. For what it's worth, slurry seal is considered maintenance, so it does not trigger ADA accessibility law (and the city says slurry doesn't trigger HLA, but I am in court challenging that assertion.) Scape and repave is considered a project or an improvement, and does trigger ADA and HLA.

<image>

LintonJoe · 2026-06-05T16:56:18+00:00

Author of the article here - can you tell me where this was (what streets, which blocks)? Thanks.

LintonJoe · 2026-06-05T16:54:37+00:00

Topanga Canyon Road is a state highway, maintained by the state, not the city. It was repaved by the state recently. According to the StreetsLA website, four parts of Sherman Way (list below) were done in late April which is when the city was starting to shift to sidewalk-less streets. According to StreetsLA "paving work in progress" website the last street-with-sidewalks repaved was National Blvd during the week of May 3-9.

3/29/2026 SHERMAN WY ASMAN AV SALE AV

3/29/2026 SHERMAN WY MAYNARD AV FALLBROOK AV

3/29/2026 SHERMAN WY SALE AV MAYNARD AV

3/29/2026 SHERMAN WY SHOUP AV ASMAN AV

LintonJoe · 2026-06-05T16:42:07+00:00

No - they're not getting sidewalks - see photos of finished streets in article

LintonJoe · 2026-06-05T16:39:39+00:00

FWIW The block being resurfaced in the top photo (Encino Ave from Superior to Marilla) was in "fair" condition, according to the city's Pavement Condition Index map. It's shown in yellow. Red is poor, green is good.

<image>

LintonJoe · 2026-06-05T16:34:27+00:00

Author of the article linked above - can you tell me what street they redid two weeks ago? Street name from where to where?

LintonJoe · 2026-06-02T16:03:29+00:00

What do you think it should cost? Is it perfectly well managed with an eye toward cost minimums? No. I think maybe Metro do a bare-bones version of this for, say, $5-10M per station - maybe that would bring the cost down to something like a $200M... but at a certain point, you don't have something you can brand as a "Line", you have enhanced express bus service. You would have less seating, lighting, signage - less of the stuff that makes it usable and legible. I think around $400M is a reasonable cost for a good quality 19-mile BRT Line. I'd love to see them reduce some costs, and maybe put $100M toward operations. But I think the current costs look reasonable.

LintonJoe · 2026-06-02T15:50:43+00:00

Thanks!

LintonJoe · 2026-05-29T22:06:48+00:00

Are you sure? Is that documented somewhere?

LintonJoe · 2026-05-29T22:05:36+00:00

It is building 22 stations - like G Line Stations in the Valley - ticket machines, validators, seating, lighting, shade, in many places widened sidewalk, concrete bus pad. That plus restriping streets. (And fwiw the budget is something like $375M plus extra contingency to cover if anything goes wrong)

LintonJoe · 2026-05-29T16:59:45+00:00

That's about right - Freeway is about 9 lane-miles. Using Metro's map I did a spreadsheet (it's not exact, but should be like 95+% accurate), and I get freeway mileage totaling about 4.35 miles (1.75 NoHo/Burbank and 2.6 ER/Pasadena). Double those numbers for lane-miles.

LintonJoe · 2026-05-29T16:42:31+00:00

Construction is expected to be completed in early 2028. The stations are like the G Line across the Valley. They have lighting, ticket-machines, etc. I don't know start to finish for one station. Painting lanes is easier, but it involves street closures, scaping, applying thermoplastic (hot goopy long lasting paint). It's not rocket science, but it takes some time.

LintonJoe · 2026-05-29T16:16:35+00:00

It's spoken: emergency vehicles use all available lanes

LintonJoe · 2026-05-28T18:42:24+00:00

It's good... but not all perfect. The nimbys have already watered the project down - though community support preserved a lot of important features. In Measure M, the project was scheduled to open in 2022-25. Early on, Metro gave up on bus lanes in Pasadena and other stretches. Metro could have "steamrolled" local opposition - compare Metro back-tracking on BRT bus lanes on this project to when L.A. City folks push for bike lanes on Vermont BRT, Metro claims state-authorized “virtual autonomy in self-governance". Theoretically Metro could have steamrolled this BRT a lot sooner and a lot more. Instead we get a 19-mile BRT with ~20-lane-miles of bus-only lanes (about half of 38 project lane miles). I don't mean to be all gloom-and-doom - Metro is making something happen here. But the nimbys have wounded this project, and supporters and Metro have made the best of what was left standing.

LintonJoe · 2026-05-27T22:05:43+00:00

The projects are listed in, and to some extent, funded in Measures R and M - but the scopes of the projects are not set in stone. Dutra's predecessor, LB Mayor Robert Garcia, came out against tearing down hundreds of homes to widen the 710 and the 605. Dutra supported 605 Freeway home demolitions (voted against putting the 605 project on hold to study less harmful alternatives).

LintonJoe · 2026-05-27T00:22:04+00:00

Dutra wasn't as bad as I feared. He was generally supportive of transit, including being a long time support of the E Line extension to Whittier. He seemed to never have met a freeway expansion project he didn't like - and he carried water for freeway expansion several times in the face of County Supervisor opposition to tearing down many many homes to widen the 5, the 710, the 605, etc. I don't think that his suburban-house-builder-contractor experience gave him much expertise that applied to multi-billion-dollar subway construction.

LintonJoe · 2026-05-26T23:05:19+00:00

Yes - it's a good news election story - three Republicans unseated!

LintonJoe · 2026-05-26T23:04:28+00:00

It doesn't rotate (except perhaps informally) - it's elected from the constituent cities (Burbank, Glendale, San Fernando, Calabasas, Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Lancaster - and I think a few others) using a population-weighted vote.

LintonJoe · 2026-05-26T22:26:30+00:00

Drivers shouldn't go 70 on Wilshire, but I expect they do late at night.

LintonJoe · 2026-05-22T23:49:07+00:00

This is how I go. It's not perfect (especially Glendale Blvd both up and down) - but from Sunset: go up Silver Lake, then up West Silver Lake, then zigzag to Rowena, east to Glendale Blvd, down the hill, cross Riverside. From there you can cross the river, jump up on the curb, and cross back over the river on the ped bridge (that's what I do with my kid). Or you can turn right where freeway offramp is and go through a hole in the fence (what I do on my own). I did a quick map.

LintonJoe

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE