Los Angeles Times
Times Staff Writer
February 25, 2000
Design work has begun on a pedestrian bridge over the Blue Line light rail tracks at the site where a 13-year-old boy was struck by a train and killed last summer.
The bridge, to be built at the intersection of 55th Street and Long Beach Avenue, will be funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the rail line.
The MTA proposed the project in 1996, but plans for a bridge gained new urgency when Gilberto Reynaga was struck by a train last July 17 as he and a friend darted across the tracks while heading home from playing basketball.
After the accident, City Councilwoman Rita Walters, who has been pressing for the bridge for years, got the city to station a crossing guard at the intersection.
Construction of the bridge is scheduled to begin in November and completion is expected in June 2001.
