The scruffy entrance to downtown Orinda that drivers see after exiting eastbound Highway 24 is getting a 20-foot granite welcome sign, new landscaping, and lighted walkway bollards as part of a $277,000 city project expected to wrap up by late August.

The Orinda City Council awarded the contract to Oakley-based Modernscapes Innovations in April 2026, funding it through the city's Capital Improvement Fund. Construction is underway at Crossroads Plaza, the small public space directly behind Theatre Square Center at the bottom of the off-ramp.

"That's the front door to the city… It's the first thing you see," Mayor Brandyn Iverson said of the Crossroads Plaza area, adding that it has "looked terrible" since PG&E removed trees behind Theatre Square roughly a decade ago.

The centerpiece is a brown granite "Welcome to Orinda" sign with metallic silver lettering on a concrete base, replacing an old wooden sign. The old sign is already gone. New lighted bollards will line the sidewalk through the plaza, and a redundant stretch of sidewalk will be torn out and replaced with plantings, Public Works Director Scott Christie said.

The Orinda Garden Club helped shape the landscaping plan, Christie said. But the design had to work within PG&E's rules for the site: strict tree-height limits and a ban on tables, chairs, or benches beneath the high-voltage lines overhead.

The city leases the land from PG&E under an agreement that runs through 2046, according to the Lamorinda Weekly. That arrangement gave the utility sign-off authority over the project plans, which PG&E approved in January 2026.

Getting to this point took years. The council approved the project in June 2025 and signed off on the sign design in November 2025. When bids came in on March 17, the council rejected all five after the two lowest bidders were found non-responsive due to differing interpretations of contractor qualification requirements. The city rebid the work and ultimately awarded the contract to Modernscapes Innovations at $277,000, below the firm's original $296,500 bid in the first round and above the engineer's estimate of $240,000.

The project also includes a new irrigation system and new electrical conduit and wiring for exterior lighting.

City officials expect the work to be finished by late August 2026.