Congressman Robert Garcia Announces $30 Million For Shoreline Drive Gateway in Long Beach
Today, Congressman Robert Garcia (CA-42) announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a $30,000,000 Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) grant to the City of Long Beach to support the Shoreline Drive Gateway project.
“This is an enormous opportunity to reconnect and create new green space while building a new gateway into Downtown and West Long Beach. As Mayor of Long Beach, we advocated to our federal partners for this funding, so it’s great to be able to deliver for the city now as a Congressman,” said Congressman Garcia.
“The new funding is the first step to rebuilding primary entry points to our Downtown for the benefit of residents and visitors,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “This transformative project will help us make our local streets safer, 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.”
The Shoreline Drive Gateway project will reconfigure West Shoreline Drive to remove a roadway barrier and improve access and connectivity between Downtown Long Beach and public open space; create a new bicycle path and pedestrian amenities; and divert highway traffic from residential streets to major arterials.
The $30 million grant will fund the first of two parts on this development. Funded in this grant will be:
- Demolition of the existing northbound lane of Shoreline Drive;
- Relocation of major utilities;
- Required temporary traffic control and rerouting;
- Major civil engineering and required regrading;
- Removal of old fences, hardscaping, and landscaping;
- Installation of new fiber, irrigation and power conduits;
- Relocation of street lighting to accommodate new street and park alignment;
- Partial funding for the realigned roadway and new medians at Shoreline Drive.
The second part, expected to cost an additional $30 million will complete the project with additional roadway work, new traffic signals, landscaping, and medians. The city is looking to obtain additional federal and state support to complete this public development.
The realignment of Shoreline Drive is a critical first step to rebuild the aging Shoemaker Bridge that will produce substantial community benefits and lead to safer and more accessible streets and park space.
In total, this project creates approximately 6-acres of new and improved accessible park space that for decades has been divided by freeway lanes and inaccessible to residents and visitors alike. It will also permanently reroute heavy traffic away from residential streets and onto major arterials designed to manage the transition more safely from a freeway to city streets.
The project is a part of the Reconnecting Communities Pilot – a program made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – to help repair the devastation inflicted by highway builders on predominantly Black, brown, and poor communities cut off with highway or other infrastructure development. It is the first-ever Federal program dedicated to reconnecting working-class communities that were previously cut off from economic opportunities by transportation infrastructure.
Under his leadership as Mayor, Long Beach piloted programs like tuition-free community college and a universal basic income pilot. His signature ballot initiative, Measure A, launched the largest infrastructure repair program in a generation, promoting good-paying union jobs. In Congress, Congressman Garcia has been a strong advocate for climate and environmental justice and has taken decisive action to improve CA-42. Congressman Garcia believes in defending our democracy, leveling the playing field with progressive education policy, addressing the climate crisis, supporting working families with increasing wages, and fighting to expand and protect essential rights for women, immigrants, and the LGBTQI+ community.
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