You might see one of these Metro Freeway Crew trucks on the freeways.
Is the scenery along your daily commute looking a little cleaner? It’s not your imagination. Here’s the news release from Metro:
Metro Freeway Crew, a pilot project dedicated toward mitigating graffiti, removing debris and enhancing the landscape on the I-110 and I-710 freeways, officially launched this week. Intended to augment Caltrans efforts along the corridors, the Metro Freeway Crew is focusing on areas of the I-110 between Hill Street and Exposition Boulevard and the I-710 between SR-60 and I-405.
Work has already begun. More than 250 graffiti tags and acts of vandalism have been removed and as of October 2012, Metro Freeway Crew has cleared 5,500 pounds of trash and debris from the freeways. Additional highway cleanup, irrigation repair and landscaping preparation will take place in the coming months.
“The freeway system is a visible reflection of all of Los Angeles County and we take pride in it,” said Metro CEO Art Leahy. “It impacts our mobility, economy and health, and it affects the livability of our neighborhoods. It’s important to keep such vital transportation infrastructure properly maintained for the hundreds of thousands who use it.”
Promotional bus posters, rail cards and pamphlets to alert the public to the presence of the Metro Freeway Crew will be strategically placed throughout the Metro system. Drivers should be careful of crews working along the corridor and slow when passing work crews on the freeway.
“We welcome Metro’s efforts to help enhance and clean the landscape on two of our freeways,” said Acting Caltrans District 7 Director Terry Abbott. “To help make this project a success, whether you see Caltrans crews or Metro contractors on the roadside, we encourage the public to Slow for the Cone Zone and Move Over when you see the crews.”
The Metro Freeway Crew also will be partnering with Caltrans to work with the Los Angeles Unified School District in educating students on graffiti abatement efforts and the importance of keeping public areas clean. A class will be chosen to receive drought-tolerant plants to nurture until the plants are ready for relocation to an area slotted for landscaping, scheduled to begin Spring 2013.
Check out some before and after pictures after the jump. The after pics are renderings as landscaping does not begin until next spring.
The I-110 near Wilshire Blvd
The I-710 near the I-105
I-110 near Adams Blvd
Categories: Best Practices
P.s. and there is extremely a lot of people in los Angeles county and its the only county in the USA what extremely has trashy grafffti up freeways poor lighting on there freeways but like thw last person said the whole entire county went from extremely clean and nice back in the 70 and 80, s to extremely ghetto they didn’t enforce it they should of kept tje street sweepers out on the freeways late at night keep the landscape up it use to be so extremely green along los Angeles California freeways and when people come to losangels county ro visit and on vacation and its not just los Angeles county it riverside and san Bernardino county as well they don’t want to come back there I remember when I was a kid growing up in los Angeles county California northern California always wanted to become their own state I know people in phoenix Arizona area and the las Vegas Nevada area what works on their department of transportation they don’t want anything to do with southern California they do their best to keep their freeways beautiful and clean along with Florida and utah the greater los Angeles area can take a lesson from other metro areas if they never slacked off they wouldn’t be in the situation they’re in run adds on tv to keep southern or I should say the greater los Angeles area clean of trash and graffiti get extremely tougher penalties again taggers start charging thrm with felonies and hold their parents responsible los Angeles California needs to wake up just like they had the extremely best street cars system in the world then in the late 1959. They rip it up to replace it with freeways and polluted buses and everysense the early eighties its been rated the worset traffic in the usa along with pollution also they should of took a lesson from the bay area they have had street cars along with rail sense thel late fifties along with new York and they also have been had tolls on freeways up in the bay area Florida also has had tolls sense the interstate system started along with new york city those places are on an European system los Angeles California is extremely behind schedule and on an old grid system and transportation system for it to be the second biggest metro area and city in the USA this is why companies and people are moving out of the greater los an area to places like phoenix metro what has an state of the art brand new freeway system and also las Vegas Nevada and the greater salt lake city area redid all of their freeway s and Denver metro is doing the samething as I speak along with transportation all from tolls ao they do work Florida has extremely all new interstates and tolls all the freeways should of been had hov lanes the santa Monica. Freeway along with the downtown interstate 10 viaduct re did over along with the east los Angeles interchange done over they wait to its extremely to late and when they do get to get you can’t tell because its already outdated of waiting to long
Well the comment I have ro make sense I left southern California in 1992 and I went back twice in 1996 and twice in 1999 and everysense i lefr its barbed wire around all the freeway sighns with graffiti and trash and I have had family up in northern California in thw bay area the freeways are so clean like they was when I was a kid no trash or graffiti and also in sacramento they’re extremely clean no barb wire around the signs from bakersfield. To the Oregon state line ita like a whole different state clean air good transportation Northern California has always been cleaner and smog free and they have nice plus green freeways with pine trees and aspen trees and spruce it reminds me of the motorways in Russia and Ukraine the landscape is beautiful it blends in with thw surroundings which is green up north and also all of Nevada and Arizona freeways they paint there overpases to blend in with the desert scenary and they put up those extremely high lights on ten feet poles to light up ten or more football fields the yellow crime lights and also they’re putting them on there freeway signs plus plenty of camaras if los Angeles county do what other states around us plus up north does and San Diego does they wouldn’t have to put barb wires which is a negetive impact if you ask me on their sighns and put up pine and aspen trees and maples trees and Colorado blue spruce trees to have it look green alll the freeways need an over hall and put mile markers on the freeways like other states do
People throw litter because “I’m creating jobs for janitors” and “I pay for taxes, therefore I’m entitled to litter” idea plagues everybody. You see this everywhere from ball parks to the streets.
A public service announcement would take care of this. Simple as “we cannot continue to clean the streets anymore unless we raise taxes 200%. If you don’t want that, please take your trash with you.”
Agreed D. Though quite frankly, most of this city looks like s*** with all the tagging and litter and old furniture everywhere. There are so many trashy people here. I’d like to see a huge public service campaign informing people that the street is not their personal junk yard.
Thank God. Quite frankly, our freeways look like s***. The 110 from the south pasadena border until USC has been atrocious in the last 2 years or so in regards to tagging and trash and the rest of our freeways are not much better. Its really disgusting to see that much trash all over the place. I just dont understand why people throw things out of their cars. Time to really enforce our littering laws. Good job Metro