Ride the Chandler Bikeway west toward Vineland Avenue and for the past several years the protection just stopped. The buffered lane disappeared, the K-71 bollards vanished, and cyclists were left to merge into traffic until the protected path picked back up somewhere past Coldwater Canyon. Valley Village riders have lived with that gap for so long it started to feel permanent.
This summer it isn't. Active construction crews are on Chandler Boulevard right now, closing the exact stretch that's been the weak link in the corridor for years. This isn't another funding announcement or a rendering on a city website. It's striping crews, reconfigured lanes, and a construction schedule with real dates attached to it.
Seven Years Of Announcements, One Summer Of Actual Work
The Chandler Boulevard Cycletrack Gap Closure has a paper trail that goes back further than most people realize, and most of that history is funding milestones rather than finished pavement.
| When | What Happened |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Council President Paul Krekorian secures the funding commitments needed to complete the gap closure, according to his council office. |
| February 2023 | Krekorian breaks ground on a separate $1.2 million upgrade to two recreation areas on the existing path, at Satsuma and Cartwright Avenues between Cahuenga Boulevard and Vineland Avenue, adding exercise equipment and accessibility improvements. |
| October 2024 | Congressman Tony Cárdenas presents the city a $650,000 check earmarked for finishing the gap closure, per a release from Council District 2. |
| January 5, 2026 | The LA Board of Public Works approves the actual construction contract, connecting Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood to Leghorn Avenue in Sherman Oaks, according to the Neighborhood Council Valley Village. |
| Early March 2026 | Councilmember Adrin Nazarian joins LADOT and community leaders for a ceremonial groundbreaking, reported by Streetsblog LA. |
| June 2026 | Crews restripe South Chandler Boulevard between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Colfax Avenue, with a 6-to-8-week window for bus platform construction, according to LADOT's live project page. |
Four years between the first funding commitment and shovels in the ground is not unusual for a public works project. What's notable is that the corridor kept getting smaller, cosmetic upgrades in the meantime, new playground equipment, a fresh crosswalk at Denny Avenue, while the actual structural gap sat untouched. This summer is the first time the big fix and the calendar have lined up.
What The Finished Gap Actually Buys Riders
Once complete, the closure connects the existing Chandler Bike Path to the Metro Orange Line Bike Path, forming a single, physically separated bikeway that runs 21 miles from Mariposa Street in Burbank all the way to Lassen Street in Chatsworth, according to Council District 2's project summary. That's the entire width of the San Fernando Valley on one continuous, protected route, with a direct link to the North Hollywood B and G Line station.
The engineering is specific enough to matter for anyone who actually rides it. Crews are removing existing concrete median islands, reconstructing curb ramps to current accessibility standards, and installing Class IV bike lanes protected by raised rubber defenders and K-71 bollards, the same soft-hit plastic posts used on newer protected lanes elsewhere in the city. The project also adds floating bus islands on the east side of Lankershim Boulevard and on both sides of Chandler west of Vineland Avenue, specifically to keep buses pulling to the curb from cutting across the bike lane.
None of this is cheap. Streetsblog LA pegs the cost at roughly $7 million for about three miles, which the outlet called "fairly expensive for a 3-mile bike project." Most of that spend is concrete work, not paint: rebuilt curb ramps, removed medians, and new signal detection at intersections add up fast compared to a simple restriping job.
It's also not a perfect fix. The same Streetsblog report notes the new lanes sit along the left side of fast-moving car traffic, protected only by plastic bollards rather than a physical barrier. For a rider used to the fully separated, rail-trail feel of the existing Chandler path further west, this stretch will feel different, protected, but not detached from traffic the way the older section is.
The Other End Of The Line Is Still Just A Drawing
It's worth being honest about what this summer's construction does not finish. On the Burbank side, a separate 0.6-mile extension is proposed to link the existing Chandler Bikeway to the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station, closing a different gap in the regional network. That project has its own $3.3 million budget, funded through a Metro and Caltrans federal grant plus Measure R Highway Operations Funds, according to the City of Burbank's project page.
As of the design timeline discussed at a November 2025 Burbank council meeting, staff expected design work to wrap by the middle of 2026, with an 18-month construction period to follow, according to reporting from the Burbank Leader. That puts a realistic finish line well into 2027 or later, not this summer. The Burbank piece also isn't without friction. One councilmember, Chris Rizzotti, cast the sole dissenting vote, citing parking losses on Varney Street and what he felt was insufficient outreach to residents and business owners about the tradeoffs.
So the honest picture for anyone riding the corridor daily: the LA-side gap between Vineland and Coldwater Canyon is genuinely being built right now, but the eastern hook into Burbank's Metrolink station is still a design document. The 21-mile "cyclists' highway" framing is accurate for where the path is headed, not for where it stands today.
What You'll Actually Notice Between Now And Labor Day
For anyone riding, walking, or running this corridor regularly, the practical changes are concentrated on one stretch:
- The active work zone is South Chandler Boulevard between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Colfax Avenue, where northbound traffic was reconfigured to a single lane starting June 8, 2026.
- That single-lane configuration is expected to hold for six to eight weeks while crews build a bus platform and bus pad.
- A tentative restriping and bike detour was set to begin around Ethel Avenue in mid-June, pending installation of new "No Parking" signage in the construction zone.
- LADOT's project page notes there will be daytime lane shifts during construction but no peak-hour lane closures, since vehicle lanes are being shifted rather than removed.
Everything outside that active zone, including the murals, the playground, and the dog run, stays exactly as it's been. The path's north side near North Hollywood is still lined with murals ranging from abstract pieces to dedications to "Peaches," the fruit that brought the area's original agricultural settlers, according to Metro's Bike Share ride guide. One of the more specific pieces, "Home of the Peach" at 10844 Chandler Boulevard, depicts a monarch butterfly circling peach trees and harvesters, catalogued by the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. The exercise equipment and fenced dog run near Satsuma and Cartwright Avenues, upgraded back in 2023, are also untouched by this phase of work.
For a corridor that's been described as "coming soon" in one form or another since 2022, that combination, a defined construction window, a specific funding source, and a councilmember standing at a groundbreaking, is the clearest signal yet that the missing piece of the Chandler Bikeway is actually getting built. The eastern connection to Burbank will take longer. This summer, at least, the gap that's mattered most to Valley Village riders is finally closing.
If you're weighing a move near a corridor like this one, or just want to talk through what a changing streetscape means for a specific block, Witek Lewin Group knows this stretch of the Valley well enough to walk you through it in person.
