The Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge is a new cable-stay bridge located at the Port of Long Beach, the second busiest (container) port of entry in the United States accommodating 15% of the country’s cargo traffic. The new bridge crosses over the harbor’s main waterway connecting Long Beach to Terminal Island. It is completely modernized featuring 6-traffic lanes, an emergency exit divider and even a dedicated protected lane for cyclists and pedestrians. The bridge is also 50 feet higher than its outdated predecessor with a water clearance of 205 feet, allowing the larger more modern Panamax- class cargo ships to pass underneath directly into the port’s two major terminals. The new construction allows transporting vessels a more expeditious route for entering and exiting the harbor.

The immense scope of the steel bridge’s design required a vast cornucopia of hot-dip galvanized carbon steel structures, including platforms, railings, embeds, caged ladders, safety bollards and extensive water drain pipes. In general, the majority of the steel was easy to rack and run with minimal cleanup for the hot-dip galvanizer (with the exception of some of the offsite platforms and large caged ladders, which by their very design demand more dedicated rack space). From conception to completion the project took over 7 years (in multiple phases) and $1.5 billion dollars to complete. The hot-dip galvanizer partnered with several different fabrication companies processing material for each, while constantly working through the complicated logistics of having multiple contractors on the same project.

The hot-dip galvanizing industry was a fundamental part of turning the envisioned grand design into a physical reality. The metallurgically bonded zinc will act as a sacrificial anode (with the steel as a cathode) providing the first, and best, line of defense in protecting the bridge from the port’s aggressively corrosive temperate marine environment.