Port of Los Angeles wins award for highway infrastructure project

SAN PEDRO — The Port of Los Angeles has a lofty list of projects ahead in 2019, but the American Public Works Association’s Southern California Chapter recently granted an infrastructure project top honors. Harbor Boulevard and Plaza Park was recently completed and is now considered a highly innovative design, having won an award for Outstanding Roadway and Highway Project of the Year by Metropolitan Los Angeles Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

According to a Port of L.A. press release the highway was designed with other projects coming up in the future, such as the San Pedro Public Market, in mind.

The release says: “Additional improvements were also made to the adjacent Plaza Park, which overlooks the Port’s Main Channel. Enhancements included extensive slope re-grading, drought-tolerant landscaping, as well as a new lookout deck, decorative lighting and viewing benches. The park will also serve as a walkway linking downtown San Pedro and the future San Pedro Public Market.”

In some ways, the complete overhaul of San Pedro’s roadways could be an omen of what’s to come.

The release continues: “The Port’s Harbor Boulevard project involved realignment and reconfiguration of a three-street intersection at Harbor Boulevard, 7th Street and Miner Street in San Pedro, readying the busy LA Waterfront thoroughfare for the new San Pedro Public Market scheduled to open in 2020. With new traffic signals, crosswalks and bike lanes among other enhancements, the reconfigured intersection also provides another point of connectivity to other LA Waterfront attractions like the World Cruise Center, Battleship IOWA and Los Angeles Maritime Museum.”

Port of L.A. has been rebranding itself as the L.A. Waterfront to mixed reviews from local business owners and residents. However, one thing is clear – the L.A. Waterfront is determined to make San Pedro one of the biggest upcoming tourist destinations on the West Coast.

San Pedro Public Market, which was inspired by Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, will transform the old Ports O’ Call Village. On Jerico Development’s website, one of the developers of the project, it says: “San Pedro Public market is envisioned to be an environmentally sensitive and sustainable urban environment – a vibrant, family-friendly shopping, dining, entertainment and recreational themed destination that will connect downtown San Pedro and the surrounding local community to its waterfront and bring jobs and economic opportunities to the community and beyond.”

Along a similar timeframe, Wilmington’s industrial waterfront is being re-imagined into a 20-acre park. In California, coastal access and natural spaces is king, and this will be one of few waterfront projects that aim to capitalize on greenery.

Readers can expect more updates on projects in the LA Waterfront in 2019 as development takes place.