North Lake Avenue’s $9.9 Million Safety Overhaul Moves Toward Construction

North Lake Avenue carries around 36,800 vehicles a day. It also carries pedestrians to the Metro A Line station, cyclists navigating four lanes of traffic, and bus riders stepping off at stops wedged between parked cars and moving vehicles. Some of its intersections rank among the most collision-prone in Pasadena, according to city sources.

Now, after a five-year process that began with a corridor study and led to a $9.9 million state grant, the stretch of North Lake between Mountain Street and Maple Street is about to be rebuilt — with wider sidewalks, shorter crossings, and new signals designed to give pedestrians a head start.

The City of Pasadena is launching a new round of community outreach as the project enters its final design phase, according to the Department of Transportation.

The project aims to reshape a 0.6-mile arterial that connects north Pasadena and Altadena to central Pasadena, the I-210 Freeway, and the Metro A Line Lake Station. The corridor currently has two travel lanes in each direction with a center turn lane or raised median, and the City identifies it as a principal arterial in its General Plan. The Department of Transportation’s project website states that several of its intersections are among those with the highest collision frequencies in the city.

The planned improvements include curb extensions — sidewalk bulge-outs that shorten the distance pedestrians must cross — at key intersections, along with high-visibility crosswalks, leading pedestrian signals that give walkers a three- to seven-second head start before vehicles get a green light, improved pedestrian lighting, and ADA-compliant curb ramps. Transit stops will be upgraded, and travel lanes will be narrowed to calm speeds, though the number of lanes will remain the same, according to the city’s project website.

The redesign has roots in a Safety Enhancement Corridor Study the city conducted from 2020 through 2021, which included a public survey, a community workshop, and three virtual design workshops. That process resulted in a concept design. In 2023, the state awarded Pasadena an Active Transportation Program Cycle 6 grant of $9.9 million through Caltrans to fund the final design and construction, according to a city announcement at the time.

The city is now re-engaging the public through what it describes as an educational campaign — including social media outreach, temporary signage along the corridor with QR codes linking to the project website, pop-up events at locations along North Lake Avenue, and direct engagement with businesses and stakeholders adjacent to the corridor.

The Department of Transportation’s project website states that the core design has already been established and approved as part of the city’s successful grant application. Because the grant award is tied to the concept design shaped by earlier community feedback, the fundamental aspects of the project cannot be changed at this stage, according to the city. The current outreach phase is focused on building awareness, sharing design details, and informing residents about next steps.

Final design is anticipated to be completed in 2026, with construction scheduled to begin in 2027, according to the city’s project website.

The safety project is one piece of a broader transformation underway along the North Lake corridor. In November 2025, the Pasadena City Council unanimously adopted the North Lake Specific Plan, a long-range land use blueprint that envisions increased housing, higher densities near the Lake Metro A Line station, and a more walkable corridor, according to Pasadena Now. The transportation project is also being coordinated with the Boylston Neighborhood Transportation Management Plan and the Mountain Street Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, according to the city.

Lake Avenue is among the corridors Pasadena has identified as a “Safety Corridor” — part of 13 percent of the city’s roadways where 80 percent of fatal and serious-injury collisions occur, according to a city roadway safety analysis cited by Pasadena Now in October 2025.

Residents can learn more and submit comments at the project website, bit.ly/NorthLakeAvenue, or follow updates from the Pasadena Department of Transportation on social media.

Five years after the first community workshops, the corridor that links Altadena to downtown Pasadena is moving from plan to pavement.