California’s First Major Cable-Stayed Bridge for Vehicles: The Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project

The monthly technical luncheon from the ASCE Capital Branch for November 2020 featured a presentation from the Design Review Manager for the $1.47B Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project in Long Beach, California. This bridge has recently opened to vehicular traffic which signifies a major milestone in this historic bridge project in the state of California.

The Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project (GDBRP) at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California contains many unique attributes:

• 1,000-foot main span
• 500-foot back spans
• second-tallest cable-stayed bridge in the U.S.
• highest vertical clearance of any cable-stayed bridge in the country
  
  In addition, the replacement bridge is founded on a total of 352 cast-in-drilled-hole piles. More than 100 reinforced concrete columns of varying heights support the superstructure, with the two towers supporting the main span featuring a hollow 515-foot-tall monopole design.

By watching the replay you will learn:

• Key design and construction innovations used on this cable-stayed bridge
• How to avoid design and construction challenges for signature structures.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Michael J. Borzok, PE, PMP

Michael Borzok is an Assistant Vice President/Senior Engineering Manager for WSP USA.  He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University in 1994 and his Masters in Engineering Science from the Pennsylvania State University in 2005.  He has over 26 years of experience working on complex bridge projects and has been involved in the engineering investigation and rehabilitation of several long span bridges throughout his career including the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California, the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, Michigan, and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He is currently the Design Review Manager for the $1.47B Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project in Long Beach, California which is the first vehicular cable-stayed bridge on the state’s highway system.  Michael is a registered Professional Engineer in California, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.