Long Beach awarded $30 million federal grant for Shoreline Drive revamp

Rep. Robert Garcia, the Long Beach democrat who recently finished two terms as the city’s mayor, has helped secure a $30 million federal grant to support a massive reconfiguration of West Shoreline Drive — which will add green space in the area.

The Shoreline Drive Gateway Project will create about six acres of new park space — on land that has been blocked by freeway lanes, rendering the area inaccessible to residents for decades — will detour heavy freeway traffic away from residential roadways and will create a new bike path, according to a recent announcement about the federal funding.

“The new funding is the first step to rebuilding primary entry points to our Downtown for the benefit of residents and visitors,” Mayor Rex Richardson said in the announcement. “This transformative project will help us make our local streets safer (and) effectively double the size of Cesar Chavez Park with new usable park space for children and families and create hundreds of new construction-related jobs.”

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