BUSY BRIDGE
The new Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge could eventaully carry 15% of the nation’s imported cargo. It will span the Port of Long Beach’s Back Channel, with a deck rising 205 feet above the water. The sleek, cable-stayed bridge, which boasts scenic overlooks, will include more traffic lanes than its predecessor, a higher clearance to accommodate larger cargo ships and a dedicated bicycle path and pedestrian walkway.
The new Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge employs a cable-stayed design and is tall enough to accommodate the newest generation of the most efficient cargo ships. With three lanes in each direction plus safety lanes, it is wider and better able to handle its 68,000 daily vehicle trips, on average, which equal about 18 million trips a year.
Quick facts
● Height of towers : 515 feet
● Support columns: Approximately 100 in all for east and west approach spans
● Foundations: 352 below-ground piles support the columns.
● Total length: Approximately 8,800 feet, including 2,000 feet for cable-stayed portion
● Cables: 40 for each tower. Each cable consists of 30-80 strands, depending on location. The longest cable on the bridge will be 573 feet. If all the strands were laid end to end, they would add up to 1.7 million feet in length, or roughly the distance from Long Beach to Las Vegas.
● Steel: Approximately 18 million pounds of structural steel, 75 million pounds of rebar.
● Concrete: Approximately 300,000 cubic yards
● It has the highest vertical clearance of any cable-stayed bridge in the U.S and is the second-tallest.
Bridge timeline
Early 1990s: A replacement for the Gerald Desmond Bridge is first considered as maintenance costs pile up and the bridge nears its original lifespan.
July 2008: The Port of Long Beach estimates the cost of replacement at about $950 million.
May 2009: The Harbor Commission allocates $26.4 million to develop plans for the replacement.
Aug. 9, 2010: The Harbor Commission adopts the final environmental impact report.
Nov. 3, 2010: The California Transportation Commission approves the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project as a design-build process.
Jan. 8, 2013: The project gets underway with an official groundbreaking ceremony.
Oct. 1, 2014: A Foundations of the Future event commemorates the start of construction on the project's foundations – more than 350 massive concrete pilings.
August 2017: The westbound decline is completed by an orange movable scaffolding system.
Dec. 5, 2017: An official topping-out ceremony marks the completion of the two 515-foot towers, the tallest structures in the bridge project.
Dec. 2017: The westbound incline is completed by a blue movable scaffolding system.