The 6th Street off-ramp over Shoreline Drive will be seismically retrofit, after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $2.7 million construction contract to strengthen the bridge in the City of Long Beach, Supervisor Don Knabe announced today.

This $2,708,671 project is a part of the Federal Highway Bridge Program. Under this program, Federal funds are allocated to local agencies and are used to finance 88.53 percent of the eligible costs of bridge seismic retrofit projects. The remaining 11.47 percent of the cost of the project will be financed with State Proposition 1 B funds. Additional funding for this project is provided by the Fourth Supervisorial District’s Road Construction Program.

By retrofitting this bridge, both the drivers and pedestrians who use the bridge will benefit by crossing a safer bridge, said Supervisor Knabe.

Construction on the project should begin in December 2007, and the estimated completion dated is July 2009.