Downtown Los Angeles Says Goodbye to 6th Street Bridge

Join Councilmember José Huizar at the 6th Street Bridge Farewell Festival Saturday, Oct. 24th, one of Downtown Los Angeles’ treasured landmarks for 83 years. This FREE festival and concert includes live performances by: WAR, Aloe Blacc, Graciela Beltran, Angela & Leonardo Aguilar, and many others. A celebration that will end in an evening of fireworks!

This family friendly event will kick off at 2 p.m. and include children’s games and activities, food trucks, community booths, live mural paintings by local artists, as well as 6th Street Bridge Art exhibits from Art Share L.A.

Sponsors for the free celebration include Art Share LA; who recently held an exhibit featuring artists who had recreated the bridge some time during its 83-year-old history. Featured artists included Melissa Richardson Banks, Harry Nickelson, Jim Stern and Michelle Robinson. Other sponsors include the City of L.A. Bureau of Engineering; City of L.A. Sixth Street Viaduct; FilmLA; LADWP; Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council; AC Martin; Angel City Brewery; Armbruster Goldsmith & Delvac LLP; Boyle Heights Technology Youth Center; CH2M hill; City Plants; Dale Goldsmith – Hudson Pacific Properties; Eastside Luv; HNTB; Los Angeles County Bike Coalition; L.A. Downtown News; Michael Maltzan Architecture; Silverlake Wine; Skanska – Stacy and Witbeck; and Vallarta Supermarkets.’
New Bridge
The existing bridge has been slated for a rebuild because it was built with materials that are deteriorating which include an alkali-silica reaction that threatens the long-term integrity of the bridge given it about a 70% chance of it coming down in an earthquake, if left in its current state.

“The City of Los Angeles is replacing it with a new iconic bridge, one that will last many decades while incorporating one of the original bridge’s distinct arches into the public space that will be built on site.” said a spokesperson for the City on social media.

Currently, the bridge is tentatively scheduled to close on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, with demolition to start on Friday, January 8, 2016.

The new bridge, designed by Michael Maltzan, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018 and the public space beneath it in 2019.