By City News Service
A 1.5 mile section of Ocean Boulevard that links Long Beach and San Pedro, but was closed for a construction project, re-opened shortly after midnight today, officials said.
That was nearly 17 hours earlier than originally planned after the 10 p.m. Friday closure for work to begin on replacing an old bridge that is so decrepit, diaper nets have been wrapped under it to catch falling chunks of concrete.
A new bridge is being built to replace the decaying structure on the Long Beach end of Terminal Island.
On Saturday, contractors for the Port of Long Beach began tearing down U-shaped offramps west of the existing Gerald Desmond Bridge to make way for a parallel structure to be built north of the old crumbling edifice.
The bridge was to be closed for construction all weekend as the ramps were blocked off and other heavy work started. Port officials initially said Ocean Boulevard, the eastern accessway to Terminal Island, would reopen at 5 a.m. Monday.
However, "construction crews who began demolishing the last major sections of the Pier T Avenue offramp ... were able to complete the work, remove debris and have the highway ready for commuters and truck drivers ahead of the 5 a.m. Monday deadline," Port officials said in a prepared statement.
An iconic pair of twin towers soaring 515 feet above the manmade shipping channel west of downtown Long Beach will hoist cables that will bear the load of supporting the new bridge deck, when the new $1 billion "majestic" bridge is finished in 2016, port officials said.
The new bridge will allow massive container ships to enter the innermost harbor channel through its 205-foot clearance.
Modern ships and their cargoes cannot make it under the 150-foot clearance of the existing bridge, which was built in 1968.
Six lanes, walkways and bikeways will be on the new bridge, replacing the traffic-choked four-lane bridge.
The current bridge replaced a floating pontoon bridge that swung open to allow ships' passage.
Thousands of trucks cross the Desmond Bridge daily, en route between massive cargo terminals in the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and the Long Beach (710) Freeway.
The bridge is also a commuter route between San Pedro and Long Beach, and no tolls are collected.
Two other highway bridges link terminal island to the mainland: the soaring green Vincent Thomas Bridge at San Pedro, and the utilitarian bridge at the Terminal Island (47) Freeway.
The Port of Long Beach, Caltrans and the U.S. Department of Transportation are building the new bridge, and plan to post photos and videos of the construction progress at www.newgdbridge.com.
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