Olympic Blvd. 2
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More than 2-billion dollars in federal stimulus money has been poured into transportation infrastructure projects in California. It’s not the first time federal dollars intended to “jump start” the economy have been spent on California roads. KPCC’s Kitty Felde says it’s another Street Story.
The longer it took to build Olympic Boulevard, the more expensive the project became. Bean fields gave way to subdivisions. The cost of obtaining right of ways mushroomed. Then the depression hit.
Matt Roth, an historian with the Auto Club, says the Olympic project got some help from none other than Franklin Roosevelt. Roth says immediately upon taking office, Roosevelt sent to Congress "a bunch of very important initiatives, the so-called hundred days. And one of them is the Civil Works Administration."
One of the first projects to get CWA money was Olympic Boulevard. The Civil Works Administration was dismantled after a handful of months, but Olympic Boulevard has rolled on for more than 75 years.
