‘Harbor-geddon’? Residents fear a 16-month Vincent Thomas Bridge closure will gridlock port communities

Caltrans is slated to fully close the cracked and spalling 61-year-old Vincent Thomas Bridge connecting San Pedro to Terminal Island as soon as next year — stirring fear of traffic nightmares for nearby neighborhoods that breathe some of the region’s most polluted air.

Once a tollway, the iconic mile-long suspension bridge — a crucial artery in the nation’s busiest port complex — has been deteriorating for years. Tests show that the concrete deck is failing, and engineers warned it needs to be fixed before it falls into further disrepair and forces the state to close it altogether.

After years of studies, months of meetings and a more than 900-page environmental review, the California Department of Transportation recently announced that the bridge will shut down completely for 16 months beginning late next year or early 2026. Traffic will be rerouted through nearby streets that have yet to be determined.

“A lot of people are going to be inconvenienced with this closure,” said Caltrans spokeperson Eric Mejivar. “But this bridge deck replacement project needs to be done. ... The bridge deck has met its life span.”

Activists say the work will cause more than a traffic jam.

“They really need to consider the impact to the residents here,” said Irma Venegas, 56, a lifelong resident of Wilmington. “We already look at a layer of dust on our cars [and] our homes every day because of the environmental pollution. It is going to be worse with added traffic.”

Wilmington residents have long complained about noxious air and the rumble of cargo trucks. The community of about 59,000 residents — largely Latino — sits on the edge of global commerce just north of the bridge, which spans the main waterway reaching Los Angeles’ port terminals. The area is home to refineries, freeways, rail yards, oil wells and massive container ships.

Caltrans’ environmental review shows that a closure will result in “temporary, disproportionately high and adverse air quality and traffic effects on minority or low-income populations” already experiencing higher rates of asthma. And its models say that traffic diversion will increase levels of PM10, particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns or less that harms the lungs and heart and is commonly emitted from vehicles and construction sites.

Venegas said she now has frequent headaches and allergies because of the dirty air.

“These projects must be done,” she said. “They are going to do it, but we are the ones who suffer.”

Diverting more traffic into the polluted community is going to make it worse, said Ed Avol, an expert on the health effects of air pollution. The Caltrans review found that the project would increase the legally allowable PM10 in surrounding neighborhoods by about 11%.

“If I was living there and was told that there would be 11% more pollution, I would not be happy,” Avol said. “What are you going to do to protect the health of the people? Children’s lungs are growing now. This is not something you can recapture.”

Caltrans said it will hold public hearings to allow the community to weigh in on the best alternative routes. Among the streets identified for traffic diversion are Harry Bridges Boulevard/Alameda Street, Anaheim Street, Pacific Coast Highway, Sepulveda Boulevard, the 405 and 710 freeways and parts of State Routes 47 and 103.

“We’re actually having a traffic management plan task force that we’re starting very, very soon,” Avol said. “To get those conversations going, which are really important to the community.”

It’s estimated about 53,000 trips are taken across the bridge daily, about 9% of those by heavy cargo trucks.

“Do you remember ‘Car-mageddon’?” asked Los Angeles City Councilman Tim McOsker, referring to a much anticipated weekend closure of a 10-mile stretch of the 405 Freeway in 2011 that was expected to bring traffic chaos. It never happened, he said. Instead, a barrage of warnings kept people off the road. McOsker said he wants the same kind of effort put into the bridge closure.

“The idea of slowing anybody down on Sunset Boulevard and delaying the commute of West L.A. [residents] through their own communities so that they’d get to their jobs in downtown L.A. was unthinkable,” he said. “I’m calling this ‘Harbor-geddon’ because we need to make it unthinkable that an ILWU worker can’t get to work on time.”

Unlike private developers, who make binding commitments through the environmental review process, Caltrans made nebulous promises that can’t be easily enforced, he said.

“I want the state to step up with real plans and a real contribution to adding crossing guards and any other protective measures around our schools,” McOsker said.

The $706-million project should steer traffic away from neighborhood streets closest to the ports and toward freeway alternatives, he said.

The bridge serves as a key route for thousands of commuters who traverse the port complex between Long Beach and San Pedro, with many residents using it as an alternative coastal route to the 405 Freeway farther inland.

Planners had sought different ways to keep the bridge open during repairs, but that would have extended construction by four years, well into the time that Los Angeles will be hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Opened in 1963, the lima-bean-green span was the only suspension bridge in Los Angeles County and the first welded one in the United States. It was named after longtime California legislator Vincent Thomas, who had fought to build it for decades. Its soaring towers have come to define San Pedro and the region.

The bridge was partly responsible for the port’s rapid growth in the 1970s, especially after 1968 when it linked to the 110 Freeway. It was the tallest bridge in L.A. County for more than 55 years before being surpassed in 2020 when the adjacent Long Beach International Gateway Bridge opened over the Port of Long Beach.

While the towers and cables are still in good shape, fixing the deck has caused heartburn.

“The alternative routes being proposed are already not driveable,” said Monica Diaz, who heads the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. “You have got potholes galore that get patched up and then pop right back up again because of the heavy truck traffic.”

There aren’t many cut-through roads that can support the type of traffic that already comes through Wilmington, she said.

Along Harry Bridges Boulevard and Alameda Street, less than a mile from port terminals, asphalt streets are crumbling and other construction projects are underway, blocking lanes.

“There’s a challenge that exists for residents and businesses just to travel,” Diaz said.

“We know this needs to be done. All of this industry benefits our workforce, our small business, but there is money available to entities like Caltrans to offer the highest and best solution available.”