Delivering a landmark urban bridge to reunite neighborhoods across the Los Angeles River
The $588 million viaduct is the largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles and was built to replace the original 3,500-ft-long, 46-ft-wide viaduct constructed in 1932 that served as a backdrop for dozens of movies, TV shows, music videos and video games but was found to be seismically deficient and irreparable. This historic project provides exceptional pedestrian and bicycle access, and safer traffic and goods movement. As the program manager for the past 15 years, Jacobs was the longest-serving consultant on the project.
After more than six years of being closed, we are thrilled to reopen the newly built Sixth Street Viaduct and usher in a new era for Los Angeles. Once again, this bridge will take its place as one of Los Angeles’ most iconic landmarks connecting the Arts District and Boyle Heights. This celebration will be a tribute to the years of dedicated work that went into creating one of the most inspiring public works projects in our city’s history.
The Bureau of Engineering partnered and engaged extensively with the community in the design of the bridge, known as the “Ribbon of Light”, which was selected through an international design contest. Funded by the Federal Highway Transportation Administration, the California Department of Transportation and the City of Los Angeles, this landmark projectwas the first time the city to usede a Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) delivery approach. This innovative approach brings the Contractor on board during the design phase to provide input and optimize the design. Jacobs wrote a request for proposal (RFP) for the CM/GC procurement, assisted in the oversight of the designer and CM/GC collaboration and prepared independent construction cost estimates to validate the Contractor’s pricing.
Other support provided by our team included constructability reviews, value engineering, railroad and utility coordination, , public outreach, environmental mitigation monitoring, right-of-way acquisition services and third-party coordination.
