Skip to Content
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

Long Beach Gets Moving on Southern California’s First Highway Teardown

Removing a piece of the Terminal Island Freeway (red) would free up acres of land for new park space. Map: Longbeachize
false

This week, Long Beach put out a request for bids to tear down a stretch of the Terminal Island Freeway, opening up 20 to 30 acres for new park space. Brian Addison at Longbeachize explains why it's a long time coming and very good news:

It’s been named one of the top  “Freeways Without Futures” in the nation and described as a “perfect example of obsolete infrastructure.” It has been a blight on a neighborhood that sees some of the least amount of park space in the entire city.

Now, the project to remove a large portion of the Terminal Island (TI) Freeway in West Long Beach has officially gone out to bid in an RFP... It marks a major event in Southern California’s urban design history, being the first freeway removal project that mirrors existing projects such as the removal of both of San Francisco’s Embarcadero Freeway and Central Freeway.

The project is simple: the existing northern length of the freeway, following the development of the 20-mile long Alameda Corridor and the still-underway modernization of the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) by Union Pacific Railroad, is redundant. Not only do shipping companies use it less and less, the traffic itself matches those of 4th Street along Retro Row (some 13,700 [motor vehicle trips per day]). And if plans for ICTF follow through, you can drop that down to 8,700 [trips per day]–less than the traffic 3rd Street receives in the quiet neighborhood of Alamitos Beach.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Human Transit runs a response to a defense of slow-running transit projects. Greater Greater Washington shares research showing how Capital Bikeshare users change their transit habits. And the Bike League offers some suggestions for legal reforms that can help boost bicycling rates.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog San Francisco

Officials Celebrate Lackluster West Portal Safety Installation

The original plans put safety first and gave transit priority over individuals in cars. The watered-down, plastic-and-paint 'compromise' that was ultimately installed is profoundly disappointing.

October 15, 2024

Op/Ed: Why Transit Advocates Should Be Wary of Proposition D

San Francisco's transit system is undergoing a transformation, but Proposition D threatens to derail this progress by giving the mayor unchecked control over the SFMTA.

October 11, 2024
See all posts