Daily News - Cleanup Work Completed Along Orange Line Bikeway

Daily News, by Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Final cleanup took place Tuesday on a San Fernando Valley bikeway that had become home to transients and trash, city transportation officials reported.

A contractor for the L.A. Department of Transportation removed the last of the trash Tuesday on a 1-1/2-mile stretch of Orange Line bikeway between between Sepulveda Boulevard and Hazeltine Avenue.

The bike path had become blighted with trash, homeless encampments, drinking spots and overgrown weeds along the route.

"It's done. It's all cleaned up," said Paul Meshkin, an LADOT transportation engineer in charge of the 14-mile bikeway. "Today, it looks really nice. Every tree is trimmed. Trash has been removed. We just have to make sure the contractor stays on top of it."

Meshkin said Sunscape landscaping was hired last summer on a six-month contract to maintain the bikeway. Negotiations are under way to renew the contract, which expires this month.

Los Angeles police and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies had periodically picked up trash along the route.

"I'd like to see a requirement for how often they (the contractor) must do maintenance," said Glenn Bailey of Encino, chairman of the city's Bicycle Advisory Committee. The bikeway "needs to be clean and maintained. And the users and the residents need to know exactly how often the work will be done - and that it be done."

dana.bartholomew@dailynews.com
818-713-3730