LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORTS OPENS NEW ROADWAYS TO IMPROVE TRAFFIC AND ACCESS TO LAX

An aerial view of the new portions of 98th Street, located south of the LAX Consolidated Rent-A-Car facility.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and its development partners opened new and expanded roadways offering unprecedented access and connectivity to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and its new facilities. These include the newly-connected 98th Street, which spans from La Cienega Boulevard to Sepulveda Boulevard, and Jetway Boulevard, a new north-south connection between Century Boulevard to Westchester Parkway. Together, the new roadways increase vehicular mobility and provide new transit options for vehicles navigating the LAX area.
 
"Roadway improvements are a significant part of our efforts to improve mobility and access to LAX and its facilities, and the openings of 98th Street and Jetway Boulevard are the latest examples of those efforts," said Jake Adams, Deputy Executive Director for the Landside Access Modernization Program, Los Angeles World Airports. "I want to congratulate the LAWA teams, as well as those with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and all of our contracting partners who worked to complete these new roadways."

The newly connected 98th Street is now a single contiguous roadway, running from the on- and off-ramps at La Cienega Boulevard to Sepulveda Boulevard. The one-and-a-half-mile roadway, which runs parallel to Century Boulevard, is a new east-west roadway alternative that includes brand new intersections serving Bellanca Avenue, Aviation Boulevard and Concourse Way, as well as complementary landscaping and sidewalks.

A map of the newly extended and contiguous 98th Street, with new portions of the roadway highlighted in yellow.

LAWA's effort to connect the entirety of 98th Street was made possible by working in cooperation with other government agencies, including the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering (LABOE), the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) and Caltrans. Each agency provided critical support in bringing the new roadway to life. Skanska Civil USA served as LAWA’s contractor on the 98th Street Extension project.

LAWA worked closely with LABOE teams to address the volume of work affecting rights-of-way in and around the 98th Street Extension project area. As part of this work, a new LABOE Airport Infrastructure Review team was formed, which placed LABOE personnel alongside LAWA personnel to evaluate proposed improvements, and expedite processes for reviews and approvals.

An easterly view from the new intersection of Bellanca Avenue and 98th Street.

Teams from LADOT and Caltrans worked with LAWA's engineering and planning staff to implement design solutions that ensured the safe and proper flow of vehicles in and around key areas, such as the LAX Consolidated Rent-A-Car (ConRAC) facility, located nearby new roadway work at the La Cienega on- and off-ramps and the new intersection with Concourse Way. These new roads and the new intersection offer drivers returning vehicles to the ConRAC with an alternative to exiting onto Century Boulevard from La Cienega Boulevard from Interstate 405, which LAWA believes will reduce traffic on and around the intersection of La Cienega Boulevard and Century Boulevard.

The project also allowed for the installation of a new water trunk line from LADWP, which replaced a trunk line installed in 1937 within Century Boulevard. The older trunk line, which was 36 inches in diameter and past its useful service life, was replaced by a new 48-inch earthquake resistant ductile iron (ERDIP) pipe that provides additional capacity and reliability. The new line was installed by LADWP, with small portions of the work performed by Blois Construction as part of the LAWA Utilities & LAMP Enabling Project and Skanska Civil USA/LA Gateway Partners.

LAWA also coordinated extensively with LA Metro as early as 2013 to coordinate the construction of intersections along Arbor Vitae Street at Bellanca Avenue and Aviation Boulevard, so that both vehicle and train traffic could concurrently operate in the area. The new intersection at Aviation Boulevard and 98th Street is adjacent to a new grade separated rail transit bridge, allowing vehicle traffic to pass under the rail line without interrupting either vehicular traffic on 98th Street or trains operating on the K or C lines.

A map highlighting Jetway Boulevard, which offers new routes to the LAX Economy Parking facility.

Jetway Boulevard fully opened on July 27 with new roadway segments that extended the roadway south. Its original segment first opened in 2021 to serve the LAX Economy Parking structure. The completed roadway offers two vehicle lanes and one bike lane in each direction, and measures nearly six tenths of a mile between Westchester Parkway and Century Boulevard. The roadway also provides new intersections serving 96th Street and 98th Street, as well as new infrastructure for stormwater collection and infiltration to recharge groundwater tables.

Construction of Jetway Boulevard began in 2019 as part of the Roadways and Utilities Enabling project, a series of smaller yet high-priority projects supporting the LAX Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP). The first segment of the street was constructed by Myers Griffith Joint Venture, which connected Westchester Parkway to the entrance of LAX Economy Parking on 94th Street. LINXS completed the remaining segments between the LAX Economy Parking facility and Century Boulevard. Other key contractors and subcontractors included Skanska, Swinerton, Comet Electric, Select Electric, Fryman Management and Sterndahl.

Both roadways, inclusive of applicable landscaping and utility work, were built as part the LAX Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP), which also includes the LAX Automated People Mover. For more information about LAX's modernization and projects, visit www.lawa.org/transformingLAX.

A westerly view along Century Boulevard from  the intersection with Jetway Boulevard.