Firestone Boulevard Railroad Overpass – Los Angeles CA

Description

“FOUR grade separation projects were recently completely in Los Angeles. These projects have a been financed from funds set aside by the Federal Government to be used on grade separation projects. On these projects the State acted as an agent for the Federal Government, contracting and supervising the construction. The projects were intended to relieve labor and carried the condition that as far as practical, labor was to
come from the relief rolls and that labor be confined to one hundred thirty hours per month. It also stipulated that railroad work could be done by the railroad forces.”

“The Firestone Boulevard Grade Separation provides for the carrying of the four high speed interurban tracks of the Pacific Electric Company over Firestone Boulevard. Long gradual approaches carry these tracks to a street structure which spans Firestone Boulevard. Firestone Boulevard, a main trunk highway carrying traffic to the south, was estimated to carry 20,000 automobiles daily, and at this point the interruptions from train crossings were 600 daily.

During the construction of this project the Pacific Electric trains were confined to two”shoofly” tracks placed west of the structure. The construction required that retaining walls be built along Graham Avenue and Park Avenue, followed by the placing of the railroad approach and the pouring of the substructure for the spans across the boulevard. The approach fill of 106,000 cubic yards was made by rail shipments from Long Beach. On completion of these fills the railroad cranes, working from the abutments, placed the structural steel girders and beams across the highway. To provide for pedestrians a subway was constructed through the railroad fill and under the tracks at Eighty-fourth Street. Three railroad stations, one at Eighty-fourth Street, one at Firestone Boulevard and one at Kent Station, were constructed for the convenience of local residents. With the exception of a few hours when structural steel was being erected, traffic was permitted to pass through the project. At a total cost of $323,000 the project, including railroad work, was completed on February 6, 1937.”

The Pacific Electric Company eventually went bankrupt and was liquidated in the late 1950s. In 1990, the LA Metro constructed the Blue Line from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach along the former PEC ROW, replacing the old overpass with a concrete bridge that both the LA Metro and the Union Pacific RR share.