Construction of footbridges to help safeguard pedestrians

In an attempt to keep vehicles and pedestrians safely apart, Calabasas will build a pedestrian bridge over Las Virgenes Creek at Lost Hills Road. The bridge will allow students on foot easier access to A.E. Wright Middle School, and steer them away from busy roads such as Lost Hills and Las Virgenes.

The city also wants to build similar pedestrian bridges at A.C. Stelle Middle School and at Calabasas High School. According to Robert Yalda, Calabasas public works director, both ideas are preliminary.

The A.E. Wright footbridge is almost ready for construction, and could be finished during the early part of the next school year, Yalda said.

"My goal is to build it this summer," he said. "Right now, we're in the process of getting our permits."

Meanwhile, the Calabasas Traffic and Transportation Commission plans to discuss the possibility of building the A.C. Stelle and Calabasas High School footbridges.

Yalda said he'd like to build the A.C. Stelle footbridge between the school's main buildings and its sports fields.

"At A.C. Stelle, the (vehicle) circulation loop is currently kept closed, so the conflict does not yet exist," Yalda said. "The city would like the school to open the loop to allow vehicles to circulate around the school at (drop-off and) pick-up times, thus reducing some of the congestion from the adjacent intersections."

The students, however, can only access the sports fields by crossing the vehicle loop.

"Understandably, the school's officials are reluctant to open the loop where kids using the playing fields for sports will be crossing the circulation loop while vehicles are using it," Yalda said.

That's why the city wants to build a pedestrian bridge right there to connect the sports fields with the other school facilities so that pedestrians can cross safely and not conflict with vehicle movement.

Calabasas High School has a similar dilemma. Students walk from the campus to the parking area, often causing a halt to traffic movement within the campus, Yalda said.

"If I could build some kind of pedestrian bridge from near the administration office to near the tennis courts in the back area, then you wouldn't have a conflict of movement between students and the (motorists who) are there to pick up their kids, especially during those peak hours of 2:30 and 3 p.m. when 2,000 students are trying to get into the parking lot," Yalda said.

Yalda believes that an improvement in the school's internal traffic will result in improved traffic movement on roads surrounding the campus.

Aside from improving traffic flow, Yalda feels the pedestrian bridges will increase safety, since pedestrians won't be crossing through vehicular traffic.

Yalda found state grants to build the A.E. Wright footbridge. He hopes to find similar grants to build the A.C. Stelle and the high school footbridges, but so far he's found that the state gives grants to projects that actually remove vehicles from roads.

"These projects aren't really removing vehicles from the streets, so I'm having a hard time finding a grant from state agencies," Yalda said.

The Traffic and Transportation Commission may discuss alternative funding methods at a future meeting. To view upcoming commission meeting agendas, go to www.cityofcalabasas.com.