Long Beach port starts work on interchange to ease congestion

Long Beach port starts work on interchange to ease congestion    The Port of Long Beach has broken ground on a $63.5 million project to ease traffic congestion across Terminal Island along a critical routing for ocean containers.
   'About 15 percent of all U.S. waterborne cargo containers moves through the Ocean Boulevard and Terminal Island Freeway interchange,' the port said in a statement.
   When completed, the project will reduce traffic delays by 5,600 vehicle-hours per day, said James C. Hankla, secretary of the Long Beach board of harbor commissioners.
   The construction, to be finished in February 2007, will eliminate two Terminal Island traffic signals and raise Ocean Boulevard 20 feet, so that east/west traffic can travel non-stop between the Gerard Desmond Bridge and Navy Way. Local access to Terminal Island's port facilities from Ocean Boulevard will be maintained with on-ramps and off-ramps.