New Bridge to Open in Long Beach

After seven years of construction, a new cable-stayed bridge in Long Beach – the first of its kind in California – is expected to open to public traffic on Oct. 5.

The new not-yet-named span replacing the aging Gerald Desmond Bridge is taller and wider to accommodate bigger vessels passing through, and is a major link for goods movement, carrying 15 percent of the nation’s imports. It also features six lanes, two 50-story-tall towers and 80 cables, a pedestrian-bike path and color-changing LED lights.

“The new bridge is an engineering marvel and a point of pride for the tens of thousands of workers whose livelihoods are connected to the Port of Long Beach,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero. “We are both grateful for the years of hard work by the bridge contractor and workers and for the collaboration with Caltrans to deliver our new bridge. We’re very excited by what this bridge to everywhere means to our Port and the national economy.”

The $1.47 billion bridge project was led by the port and Caltrans, with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

To prepare for the new bridge opening, motorists should expect traffic closures in the area from Oct. 2-4 “in order to switch over lanes to connect both ends of the nearly 2-mile-long structure to existing roadways that reach the 710 Freeway, downtown Long Beach and Terminal Island,” according to the port.

Visit www.newgdbridge.com for more.

By Sarah Spangler