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The 62-year-old Vincent Thomas Bridge( pictured) will be closed from November 2026 to March 2028 for repairs. Shutterstock. com

LA port stakeholders warming to plan to mitigate impact of bridge project

By Bill Mongelluzzo

The state of California’ s plan to minimize disruption of truck traffic serving the Port of Los Angeles during a 16-month-long bridge repair project is building confidence among harbor truckers and other stakeholders that they’ ll be able to plan and manage accordingly.

The California Department of Transportation is designating and repaving detour routes and has agreed to establish a real-time communications network to update motorists and truckers about traffic conditions in the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex throughout the construction project, Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association( HTA), told the Journal of Commerce.

“ We need consistency. If communication is consistent, we can plan,” he said.

The Vincent Thomas Bridge deck replacement project will begin this winter. But those nighttime suspensions of traffic in one direction are just a prelude to the full closure of the bridge for 16 months from November 2026 to March 2028, Rimma Tebeleva, senior transportation engineer and project manager at Caltrans District 7, told the Los Angeles-Long Beach Propeller Club on May 28.

The bridge, located at the approach to Los Angeles harbor, handles 53,000 vehicles each day, about 3,400 of which are heavy-duty trucks, Tebeleva said.

Caltrans has held meetings about the project with port stakeholders, including the HTA; the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, which represents terminal operators; the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represent management and labor; and the Port of Los Angeles.

“ We are currently working with port pilots, engineers and consultants to fully understand the impacts from construction,” a port spokesman told the Journal of Commerce.

The traffic management and communications program will respond in real time to issues as they arise, said Kenneth Young, chief in the Office of the District Traffic Manager at Caltrans District 7.

“ It will detect queries as they develop and advise on alternate routes,” Young told the meeting.

He added that Caltrans intends to divert traffic as necessary to state highways in order to minimize use of local roadways. Schrap agreed that this strategy is necessary in order to prevent friction in communities near the port.

“ We don’ t want trucks going through neighborhoods,” he said.

“ We need consistency. If communication is consistent, we can plan.”

The work in the coming year will involve temporary placement of a platform underneath the bridge to support it during the construction process, Tebeleva said. This will reduce the air draft underneath the bridge by about 2.5 feet during construction. Port engineers and pilots are studying the impact this will have on vessel traffic in the channel, the port spokesman said.

The Vincent Thomas Bridge opened in 1963. In recent years, structural problems such as cement cracking have accelerated, Tebeleva said.

Schrap said the working group will continue to alert Caltrans on measures port stakeholders feel are needed to maintain traffic flow in the harbor area, and he anticipates the agency will respond accordingly.

“ We feel our messaging has gotten through. We feel we’ re in a good place,” he said.

email: bill. mongelluzzo @ spglobal. com

20 Journal of Commerce | July 7, 2025 www. joc. com