20th, Cloverfield Contractors Hired for $4 Million

More than $4 million in construction contracts have been approved by the city to beautify 20th Street and Cloverfield Boulevard between the 10 freeway and Pico Boulevard.

The City Council is signing off on a $4.01-million contract with Corona-based All American Asphalt and a $385,670-contract with Black & Veatch for construction management of the "20th Street and Cloverfield Boulevard Improvement Project."

Five years in the making and more than $1 million over budget, construction is slated to start by early summer to bring more than 100 new trees, 13-17 feet street lights, bike "sharrows" and wider sidewalks to the barren area.

The construction contracts approved last week by the City Council also include upgrades to traffic signals—reconfigurations needed to improve bike path connections—and new street light circuitry.

In 2009, it was estimated that those upgrades would increase the total project costs to about $6.7 million from  $5.5 million

Construction is anticipated to start by early summer 2012 and last for up to one year. Construction will occur along 20th Street and Cloverfield from Pico Boulevard to the 10 freeway.

Main features of the improvement project include:

• Reconfiguration of the traffic signal and intersection at the 20th Street off-ramp at Michigan Avenue.
• Removal of 36 existing bottlebrush trees on 29th and replacement with about 107 new trees: Crape Myrtle, Evergreen Madrona and Firewheel Tree. New Pink Trumpet Tree, Chinese Fringe Tree and Variegated Brisbane Box will be planted along Cloverfield, where currently no street trees exist.
• Addition of a shared lane marking, or “sharrow"—a symbol painted on the street to alert drivers when bicyclists are likely to be nearby.
• Installation of “bike boxes” and bicycle detection devices.
• Upgrades to the traffic signals at the intersection of 10 freeway off-ramp and 20th and the intersection of Pico Boulevard and 20th. Minor traffic signal modifications will be made at the intersections of Delaware Avenue and 20th Street, 10 freeway  on-ramp and Cloverfield Boulevard, and Virginia Avenue and Cloverfield Boulevard.
• Addition of new 13-17 foot light poles to encourage pedestrians and bicyclists to use the street in the evening.