Orange Avenue in Bixby Knolls is about to look very different. On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council signed off on the next phase of the Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway, moving forward with protected bike lanes, sidewalk fixes and bus stop upgrades. This phase covers roughly one third of the 8.28-mile route, filling in gaps between 52nd Street and Wardlow Road and between Hill Street and Pacific Coast Highway, and is aimed at slowing traffic on a fast, crash-prone corridor so crossings feel safer for people walking, biking and using transit.
The city’s Public Works Department lists the Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway as an Elevate ’28 priority project, with design, bidding and a construction start targeted for fall 2026, according to the city’s project page from the City of Long Beach. The corridor work is packaged as a full overhaul that pairs pavement rehabilitation and traffic signal upgrades with new bus islands, protected intersections, bikeway improvements and sidewalk work.
What This Phase Delivers
This slice of the project will bring about 2.66 miles of upgraded bike lanes, with a mix of buffered and fully separated segments, along with five protected intersections, 10 upgraded crosswalks outfitted with flashing beacons, 15 new or relocated bus stops and roughly 2.5 miles of new or repaired sidewalks, as reported by the Long Beach Post. Public Works Director Josh Hickman told the council that, barring major surprises, construction on this phase is expected to kick off this fall and wrap up by fall 2028, and staff said they will roll out more detailed information on closures and staging as the start date approaches.
Contract And Schedule
At its June 9 meeting, the council approved Plans and Specifications No. R-7249 and awarded the construction contract to PALP, Inc. dba Excel Paving Company for $20,553,820, with a 10 percent contingency that brings the total not to exceed $22,609,202, according to the Long Beach City Council. The contract lays out a scope that includes curb and sidewalk construction, bus boarding islands, pavement rehabilitation, traffic signal work and the various features that make up the bikeway itself.
Funding Pressure
Council members and staff framed the vote as time sensitive, since nearly half of the phase’s $29.4 million budget, a $13.2 million Caltrans Active Transportation Program grant, would have expired next month if the city had not moved to allocate it, the Long Beach Post reports. The project will rely on that ATP award along with local and regional transportation funds listed on the city’s project page to pay for construction and related upgrades.
What Neighbors Said
City staff say public meetings played a big role in shaping the final plan. Project materials show that the city walked through different design alternatives with residents and settled on a layout pitched as a balance between improving mobility and preserving neighborhood character. Neighbors weighed in on details as granular as how much green striping to use and whether certain spot repairs should be done in concrete or slurry seal, and staff say that feedback helped refine the options ultimately presented to the council.
Safety Backdrop
The overhaul is unfolding against a grim safety backdrop. Last year, Long Beach recorded 53 fatal traffic collisions, and 32 people were killed while walking, biking or riding e-scooters, a toll reported by LAist that summarizes local data. City officials have pointed to numbers like these as core motivation for the Safe Streets and Elevate ’28 programs, which focus on reshaping major corridors ahead of the 2028 Olympics…