

Glendale Narrows (Photo by ruggybear via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)

Glendale is hiring an engineering firm to look at the possibility of building bridges across the L.A. River, including to Griffith Park and Atwater Village.

The bridges would be an extension of the Glendale Narrows Riverwalk, a half-mile trail on the Glendale side of the L.A. River that took a decade to open, Glendale News-Press reports. The trail and its accompanying park and equestrian facilities are just the first part of a multiphase project.

The second phase of the project will cost $1.4 million (not including this study) and include extending the trail further—it currently starts at Bette Davis Park and ends at Flower Street—building a bridge over a storm drain to Fairmont Avenue and building an overlook over where the Verdugo Wash and L.A. River connect, just north of the 134 freeway. The third phase would include two or three bridges over the L.A. River.

Though the City Council nearly unanimously voted to award the $725,000 contract to L.A.-based Atkins North America to study the possible bridges, the lone dissenter was Glendale Mayor Dave Weaver.

“I do not support a bridge over the river,” Weaver said at the City Council meeting Tuesday.

The study will be paid for by funds from L.A. County’s Measure R and California’s Proposition 84, which help pay for transportation projects and water-related projects, respectively.

