City Council
Agenda Report

Julian Lee, Director of Public Works

Michael Vartanians, City Engineer

Bassam AL-Beitawi, Transportation Program Manager

The Huntington Drive and Fremont Avenue Corridor Improvements Project (Project) is approximately 60% designed. Following community outreach and evaluation of design alternatives, the City Council selected preferred concepts that expanded the Project beyond KHA’s original scope. The expanded scope includes protected bicycle facilities and roundabouts and requires additional engineering, technical studies, agency coordination, and public outreach.

Staff is requesting approval of a $3,341,953 contract amendment to complete the additional work and advance the Project through final design and construction. The amendment would increase Kimley-Horn's total contract amount from $2,440,161 to $5,782,114, including contingency and optional services. The amendment is fully funded by existing Project grant funds.

The City received approximately $46.6 million in grant funding from LA Metro and the California Transportation Commission to design and construct improvements along Huntington Drive and Fremont Avenue.  Of that total, approximately $5 million in Measure M construction funding must be expended by June 30, 2028.

In 2023, the City retained Toole Design Group to conduct early planning and community engagement for Fremont Avenue, Huntington Drive, and Fair Oaks Avenue. This work provided the foundation for the Project’s design alternatives.

On October 1, 2025, the City Council approved a PSA with KHA to provide engineering design services for the Project. In early 2026, KHA developed and evaluated alternatives based on the Toole planning work, field investigations, technical analysis, and community input. The City held three community meetings in February and March 2026, followed by a City Council study session on April 15, 2026.

On May 6, 2026, the City Council selected Option 3 for Huntington Drive, reducing the roadway to two travel lanes in each direction and adding Class IV protected bike lanes. On June 3, 2026, the Council selected Option 2A/2 for Fremont Avenue, including a two-way Class IV cycle track and roundabouts at Hope Street and Oxley Street.

Additional community meetings were held August 31 and September1, 2026, present the advanced design. The Project is now approximately 60% complete.

The Council-approved designs require substantial additional engineering services beyond KHA’s original scope. The proposed amendment provides the additional services necessary to complete the Project design.

KHA’s original contract was based on the scope identified in the City's RFP. As design and community outreach progressed, the Project was expanded to incorporate community feedback and the Council approved improvements. The expanded outreach and coordination significantly increased the number of city meetings from 30 to 85 meetings.

The expanded scope includes a Class IV parking-protected bicycle lane along Huntington Drive, a two-way cycle track along Fremont Avenue and roundabouts at Fremont/Hope Street and Fremont Avenue/Oxley Street. Design revisions along Fremont Avenue also resulted in substantial tree impacts and required additional analysis and coordination. Additional services include subsurface investigations and potholing, tree impact analysis, coordination with Caltrans, LA Metro, and neighboring agencies, design of the Metro crossing on Fremont Avenue, and evaluation of preferred parking districts.

Public Outreach has also increased beyond the original scope. KHA’s contract originally anticipated four Commission/Council meetings and four in person community outreach meetings. The revised scope includes a total of 7 Community outreach meetings and 11 commission/city council meetings, in addition to expanded project coordination and outreach materials. Additional meetings and coordination with neighboring agencies are also necessary to address changes to the project design.

The amendment provides additional project management, data collection, environmental documentation, engineering, traffic signal coordination, bidding, and construction-phase services necessary to complete the expanded scope.

The amendment increases the base PSA by $2,584,207, from $2,218,328 to $4,802,535. Staff recommends a 10% contingency, resulting in a total contingency of $480,254.

KHA has identified $499,325 in optional services that may be required as the Project advances, including environmental documentation, additional Caltrans permitting, and hydrology and hydraulic analysis. These services would only be used if required by the applicable reviewing agencies.

With the new services, the contingency and the optional tasks, the proposed contract total is $5,782,114: 

Engineering costs typically account for approximately 10% - 15% of a project budget.  With a total project budget exceeding $46 million, the recommended contract amount is commensurate with the size, scope, and complexity of the proposed project.  

There are sufficient funds currently appropriated in the Project Budget to fund the proposed amendment.  Funding for the amendment will is as follows:

This item is related to street improvement goals in the City Council's 2025 compilation of priorities.

The Project has been reviewed at multiple meetings of the former Mobility and Transportation Infrastructure Commission and former Public Works Commission. On April 8, 2026, the Public Works Infrastructure Commission unanimously supported staff’s recommendations for Option 2A for Fremont Avenue, Option 3 for Huntington Drive and reallocation of Measure R funds from the SR-110 Ramps Project. The Commission also strongly supported construction of a min roundabout at Fremont Avenue and Hope Street.

The public was made aware that this item to be considered this evening by virtue of its inclusion on the legally publicly noticed agenda, posting of the same agenda and reports on the City's website. 

The proposed action is not a project within the meaning the California Environmental  Quality Act Guidelines, Section 21065 as it does not cause a direct physical change in the  environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. CEQA analysis for the Project will be completed with the design of the Project and brought back to City Council for approval.