Los Angeles, the world's bridge
LONG BEACH INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY, USA
Founded by Spanish settlers in 1781, as Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Ángeles, California's largest city, second in the United States only to New York City, overlooks the Pacific Ocean with dozens and dozens of miles of beaches.
A city of dreams, movies, sports and shopping, Los Angeles is among the richest metropolises in the world. A forecast contributed to by an increased ability to attract investment due in part to the New Gerald Desmond Bridge, known as the Long Beach International Gateway, which opens on October 5, 2020 after seven years of construction.
Eight lanes (4 in each direction), plus an emergency lane and a bicycle and pedestrian path, with a height of 62 meters above the sea surface. It is traversed by 70,000 vehicles every day, and super vessels (also known as Post-Panamax), the latest generation of ships capable of holding up to 15,000 containers (with a maximum height of about 58 meters), can finally pass underneath it-an achievement given that the previous version of the bridge was "only" 47 meters high.
At 2,700 meters long (330 meters the main span), the New Gerald Desmond Bridge is the first cable-stayed bridge in California and the second tallest (of its kind) in the United States. It cost $1.47 billion, required 7,650 tons of structural steel, 23,500 tons of reinforcing steel, 190,000 cubic meters of reinforced concrete, 320 foundation piles (2.50 to 1.50 meters in diameter) installed up to 50 meters deep.
Large figures, but entirely commensurate with the considerable strategic reach of an infrastructure through which 15 percent of all goods imported by sea into the United States pass. In fact, more than 20 million containers pass through the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (accessible by going over or under the bridge) each year, spilling 951,000 jobs in Southern California, 2.7 million nationwide, and covering 31 percent of intermodal transportation nationwide, in all $100 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.
Considering that the bridge has a maximum capacity of 1,200 vehicles per hour, the result is truly stratospheric.
THE WORK AND THE TECHNIQUE
TONS OF STRUCTURAL STEEL
TONS OF REINFORCING STEEL
M3 OF REINFORCED CONCRETE
MT BRIDGE LENGTH
MT MAIN SPAN LENGTH
Port of Long Beach e California Department of Transportation
Webuild in jv with Shimmick (Aecom Group) and FCC.
Work on the construction of the Long Beach International Gateway was awarded to a joint venture led by Webuild and began in 2014.
CULTURAL INSIGHTS
Not only cinema
When talking about the Long Beach, as we said, the reference to container ships is not accidental. Although the Los Angeles area is certainly not known for maritime activities, the opening of the new bridge was vital to ensure the distribution continuity in North America and to ensure the development of the port, transportation and logistics economy of the two main ports of California.
The Port of Los Angeles closed 2024 with 10,297,352 containers handled, marking an increase of approximately 19.3% year-over-year. The Port of Long Beach moved 9,649,724 containers, up 20.3% compared to 2023.
Both ports, however, recorded a significant rise in volumes during the first four months of 2025, confirming a steady recovery from 2023 levels.
of goods entering the U.S. by sea along the bridge
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