Hermosa/Redondo gateway to open by June

By David Mendez

The Herondo Street/Harbor Drive Gateway Project, a $4.7 million project that’s been “years in the making,” finally has a grand opening date: June 13 — though the project, city officials say, is set to be rideable by Memorial Day.

Redondo Beach Public Works Commissioner Jim Hannon mentioned the date, which was later confirmed by Redondo Beach City Manager Joe Hoefgen, following a presentation of a proposed five-year Capital Improvement Program for the city at a recent meeting of the city’s Public Works Commission.

According to Hoefgen, the city is holding off on the grand dedication in part to ensure that its partners and supporters in the endeavor, including the City of Hermosa Beach, Beach Cities Health District and South Bay Bicycle Coalition, are able to participate.

“We’re going to have hundreds of people ready to pass through on bicycles,” Hoefgen said.

The Herondo Street/Harbor Drive Gateway Improvement Project made waves when it was announced, in part due to the demolition of the decades-old wall separating the cities of Hermosa and Redondo.

A bi-directional bike path — the first of its kind in the South Bay — will stretch south from the former wall’s site, along the west side of Harbor Drive, before terminating at the Redondo Beach Marina.

The project also incorporates a redesign of Herondo Street, from Harbor Drive to Pacific Coast Highway. Herondo will lose a lane of travel on both east- and westbound directions, but will gain bike lanes as well as reverse-angle parking, an unfamiliar concept to most.

“It will be something new,” Hoefgen. “When people see it for the first time, they’ll be surprised, but studies we’ve seen have shown [reverse-angle parking] improves safety and traffic circulation. In a beach-serving area like that, where people are bringing loads of things to and from their cars, it’s well-served.”

The project, Hoefgen said, will be serving a number of needs, as it improves pedestrian walkways, public parking, vehicle safety. The dedication ceremony, he noted, will also include the unveiling of a Leadership Redondo public art project, as well.

“It’s a project that has something for everybody,” Hoefgen said.