Col. Andrew Baker, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District, joined other local, state and federal partners Jan. 27 to celebrate the grand opening of the Rosemead Boulevard bike path at the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area in South El Monte, California. Leaders kicked off the event with a press conference and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Rosemead Boulevard Complete Streets Project, followed by a bike ride, led by Supervisor Hilda Solis, who represents the LA County 1st District. “I look forward to our continued partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and with all our community stakeholders to transform this highway into a robust facility that accommodates all users,” Solis said. The project includes a nearly one-mile stretch of protected bikeway adjacent to Whittier Narrows recreation area. The $5.1 million in improvements are part of a larger Complete Streets’ project that will span between South El Monte and Pico Rivera to increase safety and mobility for unincorporated communities of LA County. “With this project, we’ve been able to combine one of our USACE ‘core’ mandates – to provide public safety through effective flood-risk reduction, along with the enhancement of residents’ quality of life in the shadow of the federally maintained and operated Whittier Narrows Dam,” Baker said. “We, at the LA District, recognize our role in balancing our responsibility to reduce disaster risk with our local and state partners’ goals and objectives, whenever possible.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is one of the nation's leading federal providers of outdoor recreation, with more than 400 lake and river projects in 43 states. The Corps’ LA District operates and maintains seven dams within LA County, with recreational parks along five of those dams leased to LA County and operated and managed by the LA County Parks and Recreation.