Transport authority: Long Beach bridge project critical

Transport authority: Long Beach bridge project critical    The Port of Long Beach's proposed replacement of the Gerald Desmond Bridge has earned a top ranking among planned improvements to highways, roads and railways from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
   As part of being ranked the No. 1 Regional Surface Transportation Improvement by the transportation authority, the bridge replacement project was recently approved for $11.3 million in Los Angeles County's transportation funding process.
   The Port of Long Beach is proposing to replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge at a cost of $1.1 billion.
   The bridge spans a key navigation channel in the port and links terminals on the eastern edge of the port to those on Terminal Island, which the Port of Long Beach shares with the Port of Los Angeles. Additionally, the widely used Long Beach (710) Freeway connects with the bridge, playing a key role in the evacuation of container trucks from the port to inland areas of Southern California.
   The port estimates that about 15 percent of all U.S. waterborne freight containers enter or leave the country over the bridge.
   The proposed project was also named as a Project of National and Regional Significance in the federal 2005 SAFETEA-LU highway funding bill passed by Congress. It was also recently named one of the most critical transportation projects to improve mobility throughout Southern California by Mobility 21, an influential transportation coalition.
   The new bridge would have three vehicle lanes in each direction plus shoulders on both sides to reduce traffic delays and safety hazards from accidents and breakdowns. The current bridge has two lanes in each direction, and also creates air draft restrictions for containerships passing underneath during high time.
   The port has secured about $700 million of the bridge replacement's cost, and plans to release the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the project later this year.