“The shutting down of the Burbank Boulevard bridge for construction purposes will present routing challenges for residents and businesses,” Burbank Chamber of Commerce President Gary Olson said. “It is a major thoroughfare for people residing north of the I-5 Freeway to reach Costco and the Empire Center from the north, and will most likely alter current delivery routes to some extent.”
The bridge reconstruction will be near the tail-end of a number of major on- and off-ramp closures up and down the Interstate 5 through Burbank as Caltrans rebuilds and realigns the busy freeway.
Crews will first reconstruct the Empire Avenue interchange, a project that has been in the works since the 1990s as officials seek to improve traffic flow, said David Kriske, the principle transportation planner.
“When the Empire Center was built, it was with the idea that the interchange would be better,” Kriske said.
The new interchange will be at West Empire Avenue near the Scott Road off-ramps to the I-5 and will connect Empire Avenue west of Victory Place to San Fernando Boulevard through an undercrossing with Victory Place, railroad tracks and the freeway.
The off-ramp will be converted to allow full access to the freeway from Empire Avenue and San Fernando Boulevard. The existing San Fernando Boulevard undercrossing of the freeway will be eliminated.
“During outreach efforts with the surrounding the community, instead of better access to the freeway, neighbors were in favor of more inconvenience, in favor of protecting their streets from additional traffic,” Kriske said.
