2022 WTS-LA Innovative Transportation Solutions Award: Sixth Street Viaduct Project
LA’s Bureau of Engineering Uniquely Delivers a Bridge of Size
At its core the word innovation describes something new. Obviously, there’s more to it than that. Innovation also connotates creativity, unique perspective, and a remarkable methodology to do something in an original way. That’s a tall order. Integrate that definition, though, with a complex transportation infrastructure project driven by women in an industry still largely governed by men, and the accomplishment becomes an order of magnitude more unique. That’s why WTS-LA recognizes such a project each year with the WTS-LA Innovative Transportation Solutions Award. The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering’s Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement Project redefines the concept brilliantly.
More than 30 women actively participated in key roles on the project. In fact, women held 90% of the leadership roles and women comprised more than 50% of the core delivery team, including Program Manager Julie Allen, Resident Engineer Karen Cormier, Structural Engineer Karen Keal, Principal Civil Engineer Julia Moye Sanchez de la Vega, Communications Director Mary Nemick, and Senior Management Analyst Laura Mojica. In short, women drove innovation, brilliance, and effectiveness to overcome an extremely challenging infrastructure dilemma.
It's the largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles. Connecting Boyle Heights in the east and the downtown Arts District in the west, the new 3,500-foot Sixth Street Bridge will connect and enrich the lives of both communities, as well as the rest of Los Angeles. Replacing an iconic 1932 bridge—one regularly used for film and TV shoots—the new Sixth Street Viaduct is extraordinary in many ways. Consider its technical innovations.
Deploying new soil springs to dissipate ground motion and prevent soil-structure interaction, the women-led project team also used a triple-pendulum base to prevent high seismic loading and isolation bearings to mitigate large seismic displacements. In total, the team delivered a 100-year lifecycle bridge that exceeds seismic requirements, protecting the public from 1,000-year earthquakes. But the innovation wasn’t just technical.
Widened by 40 feet, the new Sixth Street Viaduct includes new bike lanes, wider protected sidewalks, and four staircases with an ADA-compliant helical ramp. In addition, the viaduct is built on a gentler radius, enhancing driver safety. The team also developed a new park below the bridge that provides green space, sports fields, and other amenities benefiting the Boyle Heights community. But that’s not all.
Replacing an iconic structure is never easy. The project team knew that. So, they gained input from those who mattered most in that regard. The project team met and worked with the community extensively—site tours, focus groups, massive community meetings, public scoping, and surveys—to incorporate their desires for amenities, bridge design, and overall project aesthetics. By all accounts, their work paid off. But even that isn’t the extent of the project team’s dedication and commitment to excellence and innovation.
They also structured the delivery using the Construction Manager/General Contractor (CMGC) delivery method, a first for the City. From demolishing the old bridge to the first use of post-tensioning couplers in California, the project team succeeded repeatedly through innovation, dedication, and excellence. There’s another decisive factor that made this project work so successfully.
At its core, the word innovation describes something new. Obviously, there is much more to it than that, particularly when it’s applied to an infrastructure challenge. But the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering’s Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement project fits the bill. It is truly an innovative solution that provides safety, security, aesthetics, and a vital seismically protected thoroughfare. The fact that women largely delivered the project sets it apart even more, so that it truly deserves recognition, to be called innovative. For these reasons and many more, WTS-LA happily names this the 2022 WTS-LA Innovative Transportation Solutions Award.