US Presidential frontrunner Joe Biden has paid a visit the Port of Long Beach to scope out the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project, accompanied by Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and other officials.
The project is designed to ease congestion by allowing passage to larger ships; with Mr Biden calling the works 'critically important'.
His visit came hours after Mr Garcia and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti both announced their endorsements of Mr Biden, two months before the California primary. Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell and state Senator Lena Gonzalez, both Long Beach Democrats, also attended the tour, reported the Grunion, Long Beach.
'We're very happy to have the vice president here,' Mr Garcia said during the tour. 'He is ready to lead our country on day one, and we're just grateful for his leadership here.'
The US$1.5 billion Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project is nearing completion, decades after the idea was first mooted.
The bridge, like its soon-to-be-defunct predecessor, will connect Long Beach and its port with the port of Los Angeles and the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Once open, it will relieve some of the traffic that plagues the current bridge, which sees 15 per cent of all imports to the US cross it and some 60,000 vehicle trips per day.
The new bridge will offer 205 feet of clearance - 50 feet more than the current bridge. The gap between water and the bottom of the bridge will be the biggest in the country, allowing the larger ships of the future to pass under it. It will also add one more lane of traffic in each direction than the current bridge and bear the title of the second-tallest cable-stayed bridge in the country.
Mr Biden likened the engineering feat to the Panama Canal expansion project, which added wider locks to accommodate larger ships.
Pointing to the huge share of the nation's economy that's 'floating out there in the ocean somewhere,' Mr Biden said investing in trade infrastructure has a widespread impact throughout the United States.
'This brings an awful lot of money off the side lines, an awful lot of investment from the private sector,' he said. This is of serious consequence.'
WORLD SHIPPING
The project is designed to ease congestion by allowing passage to larger ships; with Mr Biden calling the works 'critically important'.
His visit came hours after Mr Garcia and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti both announced their endorsements of Mr Biden, two months before the California primary. Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell and state Senator Lena Gonzalez, both Long Beach Democrats, also attended the tour, reported the Grunion, Long Beach.
'We're very happy to have the vice president here,' Mr Garcia said during the tour. 'He is ready to lead our country on day one, and we're just grateful for his leadership here.'
The US$1.5 billion Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project is nearing completion, decades after the idea was first mooted.
The bridge, like its soon-to-be-defunct predecessor, will connect Long Beach and its port with the port of Los Angeles and the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Once open, it will relieve some of the traffic that plagues the current bridge, which sees 15 per cent of all imports to the US cross it and some 60,000 vehicle trips per day.
The new bridge will offer 205 feet of clearance - 50 feet more than the current bridge. The gap between water and the bottom of the bridge will be the biggest in the country, allowing the larger ships of the future to pass under it. It will also add one more lane of traffic in each direction than the current bridge and bear the title of the second-tallest cable-stayed bridge in the country.
Mr Biden likened the engineering feat to the Panama Canal expansion project, which added wider locks to accommodate larger ships.
Pointing to the huge share of the nation's economy that's 'floating out there in the ocean somewhere,' Mr Biden said investing in trade infrastructure has a widespread impact throughout the United States.
'This brings an awful lot of money off the side lines, an awful lot of investment from the private sector,' he said. This is of serious consequence.'
WORLD SHIPPING