Pasadenans have a love-hate relationship with the Gold Line.

They love the convenience of a train whisking them to Los Angeles from six stations throughout the Crown City. However, when the train emerges from its underground lair and crosses Del Mar Boulevard, California Boulevard and Glenarm Street at street level, the sentiments of motorists mired at the downed gates similarly take a turn.

In fact, those waiting three or more minutes or several signal cycles may curse the train as they jockey from lane to lane to find a quicker way to cross.

“As much as a I love the Gold Line, it certainly has bisected our city during rush hour,” Pasadena City Councilman Andy Wilson said. “It is part of the bigger narrative of city congestion.”

Pasadena may build Gold Line overpass

Even before the line became operational in 2003, the debate raged, with many city leaders wanting the entire light-rail line underground. A compromise was reached, leaving two stations at street level, one underground and the others plopped in the middle of the 210 Freeway.

In the past 15 years of operation, the great overpass debate has been amplified by a Pasadena multifamily housing and retail boon emerging alongside Gold Line train stations, bringing economic prosperity as a positive, with the negative of more traffic.

Now, almost two decades later, the city could love the Gold Line fully once again.

A dual underpass-overpass concept at California Boulevard, between Arroyo Seco Boulevard and Raymond Avenue, was green-lighted by a committee of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority earlier this month. LA Metro operates the train, which now extends to Azusa, and its full board will vote on funding Pasadena’s $105 million project on Dec. 6.

Ironically, the grade separation is part of about $500 million in non-freeway mobility projects preliminarily OK’d by LA Metro. Instead of building a 6.3-mile 710 Freeway tunnel from El Sereno through South Pasadena to Pasadena, LA Metro is using some of the $780 million earmarked to build the freeway extension in Measure R, a 2008 half-cent sales tax measure, to fund the overpass and other projects in Alhambra, Monterey Park, South Pasadena, San Marino and unincorporated county neighborhoods.

These “not-the-710” local projects are following Metro’s board’s directive to spread the money to local transportation fixes after it said on May 25, 2017 it would not build the freeway tunnel. The projects await final approval from Caltrans, expected to also sign off on local alternatives before the end of the year, according to LA Metro and state sources close to the issue.

Tracks to raise 12 feet

“This has been the bane of our existence from the day the Gold Line opened,” Mayor Terry Tornek said. “I campaigned on this.”

Indeed, many in City Hall are thrilled to see a project to correct an oversight from 2003 finally get recognition.

The city commissioned a study from Nelson/Nygaard, a planning agency also used by South Pasadena, to create a list of non-710 projects. Moving cars — including ambulances and paramedics headed to Huntington Hospital — freely under the train is the only one approved from the list so far.

A preliminary design calls for raising the train tracks about 12 feet, while lowering California Boulevard 9 feet, Fred Dock, director of Pasadena’s Department of Transportation, said. There is room on the north side for creating a “shoofly,” a temporary rail line that keeps trains running during construction, he said.

Grade separation options for Del Mar and Glenarm are not feasible, he added, because of engineering, blockages from nearby buildings and underground utilities.

For example, Tornek said the city looked into a grade separation at Del Mar Boulevard, but nearby buildings — an apartment complex, shops and restaurants — make it impossible without demolition. At the Glenarm crossing, adjacent to Pasadena’s natural gas-fired electric power plant, large utility lines under the street make an underpass too cost-prohibitive.

Construction closures

The project may mean closing California Boulevard for a year and could take a few years to build, Tornek said. But despite the inconvenience, the end result would be the first east-west throughway for all vehicles and pedestrians without waiting for a train in the city. California may become more important than Del Mar Boulevard, which would retain the tracks at grade and gate arms.

Currently, California attracts less traffic than Del Mar, but that may change because with train tracks separated from the roadway, “it would reduce the queuing at Marengo Avenue,” Dock said. “And for emergency responses, we would have unimpeded access to Huntington Hospital.”

Resident Robert Paulson recently moved to the city and sold his car. He walks, takes public transportation and ride-hailing services. As he walked west on California last week, he said the trains also change the “walk” signs to “don’t walk” and affect pedestrians. He didn’t see the traffic hold ups caused by train crossings as “such a big deal.”

Not pedestrian, bike-friendly

Several members of Pasadena Complete Streets and Bike San Gabriel Valley spoke at the meeting of the Metro Ad Hoc Congestion, Highway and Roads Committee in which 34 alternative projects were funded in place of the freeway extension.

Many said they focused too much on cars and not enough on bicycles, buses and walking — “active transportation” that cuts out or reduces the amount of air emissions and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change.

“There is not a single transit, or active transportation project being recommended. I hope the staff can take another look at this,” Wes Reutimann, executive director of Bike SGV, said.

Day One, a health advocacy group in Pasadena, asked LA Metro to provide Cal State Los Angeles students with free bus and rail passes.

A letter to LA Metro from Misch Anderson with Pasadena Complete Streets indicated the overpass project will not help keep pedestrians and cyclists safe. Pasadena is ranked one of the top five most dangerous cities in California to pedestrians and cyclists, he wrote.