Alameda Corridor Dedicates Firestone Boulevard Bridge In South Gate
MAY 24, 2001
SOUTH GATE – Emphasizing the benefit to area economic development, officials from the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) and the City of South Gate on Thursday dedicated the Firestone Boulevard Bridge.
During the brief ceremony on the bridge, officials snipped a red ribbon to commemorate completion of the span, one of five bridges ACTA has completed over the Mid-Corridor Trench in South Gate.
“The Firestone Avenue Bridge and other bridges over the Mid-Corridor Trench are major benefits to our community provided by the Alameda Corridor project,” South Gate Vice Mayor Xochilt Ruvalcaba said. “Combined with improvements to Alameda Street, these bridges will aid our economic development plans, which include many businesses along the route, by helping to ensure that traffic flows smoothly.”
Previously, cars and trucks on Firestone Boulevard had to wait at a crossing for trains to pass, causing significant traffic congestion. The Alameda Corridor allows cars and trucks and trains to travel unimpeded by such at-grade crossings.
Added ACTA Chief Executive Officer James C. Hankla: “The opening of the Firestone Boulevard Bridge provides very real benefits to the City of South Gate and unincorporated Los Angeles County while also demonstrating continued progress toward the on-time, on-budget opening 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 traffic 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 25th Street in Los Angeles. The Firestone Boulevard Bridge, which opened to traffic in March, was built as part of the $712 million contract for the Mid-Corridor Trench.
ACTA has completed 28 of 30 bridges over the Mid-Corridor Trench, including five in South Gate at Firestone Boulevard, Southern Avenue and Tweedy Boulevard, and at unnamed streets approaching the Hon furniture plant and the Engel scrapyard.
Construction of the entire $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor project began in 1997 and is on schedule to open in April 2002. Work is under way at multiple locations along the project route.