Long Beach International Gateway | |
|---|---|
 Road deck of Long Beach International Gateway at night; 2022 | |
| Coordinates | 33°45′54″N 118°13′17″W / 33.76488°N 118.22130°W |
| Carries | 6 lanes of  I-710, pedestrians and bicycles |
| Crosses | Back Channel |
| Locale | Terminal Island and Long Beach, California |
| Website | newgdbridge |
| Preceded by | Gerald Desmond Bridge |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Cable-stayed bridge |
| Total length | 8,800 ft (2,682 m) |
| Height | 515 ft (157 m) |
| Longest span | 1,000 ft (305 m) |
| Clearance below | 205 ft (62 m) |
| History | |
| Architect | Brownlie Ernst and Marks |
| Designer | Arup |
| Engineering design by | Arup |
| Constructed by | Shimmick/FCC/Impreglio (SFI) Joint Venture |
| Construction start | January 8, 2013 |
| Construction end | October 2, 2020 |
| Construction cost | est. US$1,500,000,000 (equivalent to $1,928,120,000 in 2023) |
| Opened | October 5, 2020 |
| Location | |
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The Long Beach International Gateway, originally known as the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement, is a cable-stayed bridge that carries six lanes of Interstate 710 and a bicycle/pedestrian path in Long Beach, California, west across the Back Channel to Terminal Island. The bridge replaced the Gerald Desmond Bridge, which was completed in 1968 and named after Gerald Desmond, a prominent civic leader and a former city attorney for the City of Long Beach.
The 1968 steel arch bridge developed numerous issues, and the Port of Long Beach decided it would be best, from an economical perspective, that the bridge be replaced. After several years of studies, a cable-stayed bridge with 205 feet (62 m) of vertical clearance to be built north of the existing bridge was identified as the preferred alternative in the final environmental impact report (2010 FEIR).[1]
The new bridge allows access to the port for the tallest container ships after the older bridge is demolished. It is the first long-span cable-stayed bridge in California and the first and only cable-stayed bridge in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.[2] For the bridge to be so tall, long approaches were required to allow trucks to cross.[3] A joint venture of Parsons Transportation Group and HNTB performed preliminary engineering for the main span and the approaches. Earlier reports had studied and discarded various alternatives, including an alternative alignment with a new bridge south of the existing bridge, rehabilitation of the existing bridge, and a tunnel instead of an elevated bridge.[1]
- ^ a b Parsons–HNTB Joint Venture (July 2010). Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project: Final Environmental Impact Report / Environmental Assessment & Application Summary Report (PDF) (Report). Port of Long Beach and Caltrans. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
NOrtegawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Stocking, Angus (June 18, 2014), "Innovative System Ensures Vertical Alignment of Gerald Desmond Bridge", Point of Beginning, Troy, Michigan: BNP Media