6th Street Viaduct Replacement
Los Angeles, CA
Since its construction in 1932, the Sixth Street Viaduct served as the gateway to Downtown Los Angeles beginning at the Boyle Heights neighborhood of east Los Angeles and ending in the Arts District at the west end of the structure. This concrete behemoth is 3,500 feet in length, over 60 feet tall, and spans over the Los Angeles River, the Santa Ana Freeway (US 101), local streets, and 17 active railroad tracks operated by Amtrak, BNSF Railway, Metrolink, MTA, and Union Pacific Railroad. Strewn along the south side of the viaduct’s eastern flank are a handful of industrial and manufacturing buildings that must remain, many of which are within three feet of the viaduct superstructure. For the last 84 years, the approximately 50,000 cubic yards of concrete in this iconic structure has been deteriorating due to an alkali-silica reactivity (ASR) condition.
Demolition of the viaduct structure began in early February 2016 with the removal of four spans over the US 101 freeway during a 36-hour weekend shutdown. Viaduct demolition continued working from the east end of the project towards the west. Various removal methods were implemented to ensure streets, sidewalks, and adjacent buildings were not damaged.
