In the early morning hours of July 13, crews began
demolishing the final sections of a U-shaped freeway off-ramp west of the
existing four lane Gerald Desmond Bridge in order to clear the path for the
first sections of the new six-lane bridge.
The port says it’s counting on the bridge to dramatically
improve an important commuter and trucking corridor at the Port of Long Beach. The
existing bridge height, 155 feet, restricts newer, larger ships from reaching
piers within the inner channels, but the bridge will raise the clearance over
the port’s inner harbor channel to 205 feet, giving it the tallest span height
for a cable-stayed bridge in the U.S.
“As more big ships enter the Pacific trade routes, the Port
of Long Beach must be fully capable to handle these larger vessels with optimum
efficiency,” port spokesman John Pope said. “This new bridge will improve
critical infrastructure that will help keep Long Beach competitive.”
The new bridge, which is expected to be complete in 2016, is
being built immediately adjacent to and north of the existing 45-year-old
Desmond Bridge, which has been declared obsolete; when the Desmond Bridge
opened in 1968, cargo ships were about one-sixth the size of what enters the
harbor today.
The $800 million project is a joint effort of the Port of
Long Beach and the California Department of Transportation, with funding
contributions from the US Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles
County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Construction updates, traffic information and other details
about the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project can be found at www.newgdbridge.com.
