Skanska Tapped to Helm Major L.A. Highway Renovation
By Nick Trombola March 11, 2024 4:28 pm
reprints
One of the world’s largest construction and development firms will take the high road, with plans to reconstruct a major highway interchange in Los Angeles’ San Pedro neighborhood, near the Port of Los Angeles.
Stockholm-based Skanska signed an $85 million contract with the Port of Los Angeles to renovate the State Route 47/Vincent Thomas Bridge and Front Street/Harbor Boulevard interchange. The project will include the replacement, construction and realignment of on- and off-ramps at the interchange, as well as improvements to storm drains, curbs, gutters, street lights, traffic signals, bike lanes, curb ramps and crosswalks, according to Skanska.
Construction on the project is pegged to begin this month and is expected to finish by the end of 2026.
In a 2020 document detailing the project’s scope, the Port of Los Angeles opined that the renovation will eliminate an “unsafe and highly congested” traffic weave at the interchange, made worse by high truck volume coming to and from the harbor. In addition to improving safety and reducing traffic delays, the port expects that emissions caused by idling vehicles will also be reduced in the San Pedro and Wilmington communities.
The project is not the first major highway interchange project that Skanska has headed in Southern California. In May of last year, the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments chose the multinational firm for a $267 million contract to improve part of the State Route 57/60 interchange, including the reconstruction of an overpass bridge, construction of an elevated bypass for eastbound SR-60 and a ramp reconfiguration. That project, also expected to reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions, is supposed to be finished by June 2028.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
