With the snip of a ribbon, officials commemorated completion of the project during a brief ceremony on the new bridge. The Zoe Avenue span is one of two new vehicle and pedestrian crossings at Alameda Street along the Corridor route. In addition, ACTA is building 27 new bridges over the Mid-Corridor Trench at existing Alameda Street crossings.

"This bridge adds an important new east-west crossing for motorists that, together with the elimination of conflicts at street-level grade crossings, will significantly reduce congestion in our city," Huntington Park Mayor Jessica R. Maes said. "For us, these constitute critical benefits of the Alameda Corridor project."

Added ACTA Chief Executive Officer James C. Hankla: "This bridge clearly illustrates one of the primary benefits of the Alameda Corridor - less traffic congestion - and demonstrates continued progress toward on-time, on-budget completion of the entire project in April 2002."

ACTA, a partnership between the cities and ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, is building a 20-mile rail cargo expressway between the ports and the transcontinental rail yards near downtown Los Angeles. The project will improve the flow of goods through the ports and reduce traffic congestion by consolidating rail lines and eliminating conflicts at more than 200 street-level railroad crossings.

The Mid-Corridor Trench will be approximately 10 miles long, three stories deep and 50 feet wide along Alameda Street between State Route 91 in Compton and 25^th Street in Los Angeles. The Zoe Avenue Bridge, one of 29 spans being built to carry street traffic over the trench, was built as part of the $712 million contract for the Mid-Corridor Trench. It opened to traffic June 29.

The other bridges over the trench in Huntington Park are at Florence Avenue, Gage Avenue, Randolph Street and Slauson Avenue. Florence was completed June 29. The others are scheduled for completion late this year.

Construction of the entire $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor project began in 1997 and is on schedule for completion in April 2002. Work is under way at multiple locations up and down the 20-mile route. Approximately two miles of the trench have been excavated.