Street Smart

<em>(from left) Signal Hill City Manager Ken Farfsing, Senior Engineering Technician Anthony Caraveo, Mayor Ellen Ward, Councilmember Larry Forester, Vice Mayor Ed Wilson, Councilmember Michael Noll, and Sebastian Rivas of Hardy & Harper, Inc., at the intersection of Cherry Avenue and Hill Street.</em> — (from left) Signal Hill City Manager Ken Farfsing, Senior Engineering Technician Anthony Caraveo, Mayor Ellen Ward, Councilmember Larry Forester, Vice Mayor Ed Wilson, Councilmember Michael Noll, and Sebastian Rivas of Hardy & Harper, Inc., at the intersection of Cherry Avenue and Hill Street.

The City of Signal Hill is putting its federal stimulus money to work on the Cherry Avenue Resurfacing Project. The City received $500,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to offset the cost of the $736,000 street-improvement project. According to the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), Signal Hill was the first city in Los Angeles County to award a contract for a project funded by the ARRA. In addition to the ARRA funds, the City is using $236,000 in funds received through Proposition 1B to cover the remainder of the costs. Therefore, no city funds are being used. Proposition 1B was a $5-billion general obligation bond approved by California voters in November 2006 to fund a variety of statewide transportation and port-related improvements.
Cherry Avenue is a major transportation corridor used in the local and regional movement of goods. It provides access to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Long Beach Airport, and Boeing. Approximately 40,000 cars, trucks, and buses travel on Cherry Avenue every day. It is also classified as a state evacuation route in the event of a natural disaster or major incident. SH road work pic 2