Alhambra Officials to Scrap Barricades

After suffering vociferous complaints from commuters and some local businesses, Alhambra officials announced Thursday that they were taking down the traffic barricades they put up earlier this week near the Long Beach Freeway.

Instead, city officials say they will attempt a less provocative way to deal with traffic from South Pasadena: re-timing signal lights on the major routes leading to and from the freeway.

Alhambra officials erected the barricades Monday as a way to drive home their support for extending the freeway, which now terminates in their city and draws a glut of commuters through local streets. They vowed the barricades would stay up until 6.2 miles were added to the freeway.

But they reversed field on Thursday, declaring “victory” in the traffic war yet announcing the barricades would come down. They explained that the signal synchronization plan, which will be released in detail Monday, is part of an evolving attempt to combat gridlock.

Although some local residents said the barricades had significantly reduced the congestion, others said Alhambra’s victory had been a Pyrrhic one that prompted withering criticism from inside and outside of town.

“I don’t know how causing that degree of inconvenience could be considered a success,” said Sean Joyce, city manager of neighboring South Pasadena. “I can’t begin to speculate what their intention was.”

Joyce and other South Pasadena officials had interpreted the diversion as revenge for their successful opposition to extending the freeway. Initially, they thought the detours were intended to send a flood of cars and road rage their way.

Morning commuters on southbound Fremont Avenue were diverted west onto Main Street and out of the city, and evening commuters driving east on Valley Boulevard were forced to merge into one lane.

But the bottleneck stayed in Alhambra and had little effect on its northern neighbor. Instead, the diversion further enraged already harried commuters and took customers away from some Alhambra businesses.

Olga De La Torre, who owns a coffee and doughnut shop just south of the detour on Fremont Avenue, complained that her business dropped 75% after the barricades went up. Now, she said, she is elated to hear the plan is being scrapped.

“It’s been terrible,” she said. “The mayor came and talked to me this morning and said he was sorry for all the bad business.

“They’re going to open the street again, but traffic will be slower. That’s better than nothing.”