Construction on a continuous path set to begin early 2020.
By Sam Catanzaro
Last month, at the Palisades Community Council board meeting, plans were discussed to construct a continuous beach walk path that will extend from Venice to the Pacific Palisades.
The Marvin Braude Beach Trail is the 22-mile long path along the Pacific Ocean coastline that stretches from the Will Rogers Parking Lot in the north to Torrance County Beach in the south, going through the communities of the Marina Del Rey and the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Torrance. Alongside much of this path, there is a designated pedestrian walkway, but a 0.6-mile gap from the Pacific Palisades to Santa Monica forces those on foot to share the bike path with bikers and scooters, which presents safety concerns.
The Los Angeles Department of Public Works (LADPW), however, wants to close this 0.6-mile gap between the Santa Monica border and the Temescal Canyon beach parking lot to create a 6-mile continuous pedestrian walkway to Venice. According to Yggy C.R Ruiz, P.E. the Project Manager for LADPW, the plan will widen the existing path from the current 12 to 14-foot width to two 12 to 14-foot wide paths and create two separate and exclusive paths accommodating both pedestrians and bicycle users.
This project will partially be funded by a $3 million Active Transportation Grant from the California Department of Transportation. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2020, and the trail will still be accessible during construction.
For more information about the project, contact Ruiz by emailing yruiz@dpw.lacounty.gov or calling (626)458-3931.
