Figueroa Street Improvement – Los Angeles CA

Description

A 1939 report on the WPA’s progress in Southern California described the agency’s extensive involvement in a major roads project helping to connect Los Angeles to the Glendale-Pasadena area by improving Figueroa St.:

“The Figueroa Street Improvement, Work Project No. 4201, sponsored by the City of Los Angeles, provided for the improvement of Figueroa Street between Bishops Road and Sunset Boulevard; and Castelar St. from Figueroa Street to College Street. Both streets are units in the major highway plan of the City of Los Angeles and form an important part of an arterial highway leading from the San Fernando Valley and the Pasadena-Glendale area to the heart of downtown Los Angeles, supplementing the city’s previously constructed tunnels and bridges along the route of this highway.

The work consisted of grading and paving this section of Figueroa Street and Castelar Street together with intersecting cross streets, and included the installation of necessary public utilities such as sewers, storm drains, and ornamental street lights and other appurtenant work, namely: curb, sidewalk and gutter construction.

While the primary object of the project was the grading and paving of approximately 1-3/4 miles of arterial highway, the installation of the public utilities was by no means an insignificant part of the work. 2-1/2 miles of sanitary sewers, including forty manholes, were installed; over two miles of electrical conduit were laid; nearly 1-1/2 miles of storm drain, ranging from 12″ to 75″ in diameter, was constructed with the necessary catch basins. 85,880 square feet of gutter, 3-1/4 miles of curb and 76,300 square feet of sidewalk were also constructed. The pavement on Figueroa Street consisted of 8″ Asphalatic Concrete, 74 feet between curbs and that on Castelar Street is of the same type but 56 feet wide. A large amount of remodeling of adjoining streets was made necessary due to change of grade and alignment.

A notable feature of this work was the necessary capping of thirty oil wells in an old oil field which the project intersected which were still producing oil in small quantities at the time this project was started.

The construction of this highway is of great importance when its purpose is considered. Two great centers of population, namely; Los Angeles and the Glendale-Pasadena areas, are separated by a range of hills and two river beds. The city of Los Angeles has spent large sums of money in building bridges and tunnels in order to connect the city with five roads approaching these barriers from the north.

The total cost of this improvement was $950,472 of which amount $869,035 was derived from Federal funds.”

377 men per month on average were taken off the unemployment rolls for 28 months by this project.

Castelar Street no longer exists. The Hill Street name at some point later on was extended up to the highway on ramp. As with most of the rest of the projects near the Los Angeles river, extensive use of recycled concrete was employed in the construction of the retaining walls.