Assembly Concurrent Resolution
No. 148
CHAPTER 159
Relative to the Long Beach International Gateway Bridge.
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Filed with
Secretary of State
August 30, 2022.
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LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 148, O’Donnell.
Long Beach International Gateway Bridge.
This measure would designate a specified portion of State Route 710 in the City of Long Beach as the Long Beach International Gateway Bridge. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee:
YES WHEREAS, The City of Long Beach is the seventh most populous city in California and serves as a major cultural and economic center in the “Gateway Cities” region; and
WHEREAS, The City of Long Beach is home to the Port of Long Beach, the second largest container port in the United States, moving 8,100,000 containers’ worth of cargo in 2020; and
WHEREAS, The Port of Long Beach serves as a local, regional, and statewide economic engine with a direct and statewide economic impact of $28.9 billion to California’s gross domestic product in 2017; and
WHEREAS, The Port of Long Beach supports 2,600,000 jobs throughout the United States that are dependent on trade traveling through the port, as well as directly supporting 576,000 jobs in the five-county southern California region alone; and
WHEREAS, The Port of Long Beach was connected to the nation’s highway system through the Gerald Desmond Bridge that saw 15 percent of all containerized cargo imported into the United States cross its length during the peak of its use; and
WHEREAS, The Gerald Desmond Bridge was not designed to accommodate this level of traffic going over it, or modern container ships passing under it, with the bridge’s maximum vertical clearance of only 155 feet; and
WHEREAS, To better serve this significant amount of economic traffic, the Port of Long Beach has partnered with the Department of Transportation, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the United States Department of Transportation to initiate the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project (project); and
WHEREAS, The project has led to the construction of a new bridge to better accommodate the passage of the 68,000 vehicles expected to cross it every day; and
WHEREAS, This replacement bridge also provides up to 205 feet of clearance for the massive container ships passing under the bridge; and
WHEREAS, This new bridge should carry a name that reflects the role the bridge plays in economically connecting the City of Long Beach and the United States to the rest of the world through the Port of Long Beach; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the portion of State Route 710 in the City of Long Beach, from post mile R3.773 to post mile R5.452R, covering the full length of State Bridge number 53-3000, as the Long Beach International Gateway Bridge; and be it further
Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to determine the cost of erecting appropriate signs, consistent with the signing requirements for the state highway system, showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author for appropriate distribution.