Silver Boxes Come to Montrose

Silver boxes found on Honolulu Avenue house a barricade system that is unusable.
Photo by Mary O’KEEFE

By Mary O’KEEFE

Those walking along Honolulu Avenue in the Montrose Shopping Park have probably noticed very large, very silver boxes at corners including Wickham Way and Ocean View Boulevard. These boxes house a barricade system that had been requested by the Montrose Shopping Park Association and the City of Glendale to help protect the area during events that involve street closures, like the Sunday Harvest Market.

It was in 2003 when an elderly driver drove his vehicle at high speed from one end of the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market to the other end. Ten people were reportedly killed and numerous people were hospitalized. It is this memory that haunts those who work at the Montrose Harvest Market. Santa Monica installed barricades and nets to protect pedestrians, and that safety precaution is something the MSPA was looking forward to; however, the large silver boxes were not exactly what were described.

The installation of the system had been delayed for weeks. Though it was finally installed the system has not been used because of a design change that was made without the knowledge of the City of Glendale.

The contract for the barricades was awarded on Sept. 24, 2019 and executed on Dec. 18, 2019.

“The City approved the shop drawing of the enclosures with the dimensions of 36” W [width] x 46” H [height] x 48” L [length] on [Dec.] 23, 2019. The vendor delivered a different cabinet with dimensions of 48” W x 48 H x 72 L when installed between December 8-16, 2020,” said John Takhtalian, Glendale deputy city manager.

When the City was made aware of the different cabinet dimensions and that the vendor has already installed them City representatives notified the vendor of the error and that the City had “not accepted these final units as the approved final product.”

The barricades are in place but not available for use. Glendale Public Works is still talking with the vendor to modify the current design to make certain it is “friendly, accessible and operable by one person,” according to Takhtalian.

At present, a person has to crawl into the box to pull out the barricade cable.

“The final design of the barricades did lead to a larger size than what was originally presented to the City by the vendor,” he added. “We are waiting for the vendor’s response on this issue.”

The City is examining its options, including modifying the existing enclosures so one person can easily access the inside of the box from the outside or build a new one allowing easier access to retrieve the cables and/or build an aluminum frame structure to cover the rim of the box with removable fabric.