MILAN, December 15, 2020 – The replacement Gerald Desmond Bridge has lit up the night sky as a sign of hope for the United States with nearly 200 energy-saving LED lights illuminating the new iconic structure built by a Webuild joint-venture at the Port of Long Beach in California. The spectacle links the bridge with the Genova San Giorgio Bridge that recently opened in Genoa, Italy. Also built by Webuild, the Genova San Giorgio had been lit up for months with the three colours of the Italian flag to inspire faith in the country’s ability to confront the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the replacement Gerald Desmond Bridge, nearly 30 colour combinations of lighting will grace its 80 cables and two towers of 160 metres in height. The lights are programmed to mark holidays such as Hanukkah, Christmas and other celebrations throughout the year. On the first night the bridge was lit up, 15 colour combinations were on display.

Opened to traffic in October, the structure is the first cable-stayed bridge in California at a length of 2,700 metres and the second tallest of its kind in the United States.

Compared with the old Gerald Desmond Bridge it is replacing, the structure will have greater earthquake resiliency and extra lanes to handle truck traffic that carries 15% of the cargo imported into the United States by sea. At 205 feet (about 62 metres), it has the highest vertical clearance for cargo ships of any cable-stayed bridge in the country. This means it facilitates the passage of ships that were too big to sail under the old bridge.

With more than 114 years of history - 128 at its U.S. unit Lane - Webuild has built hundreds of bridges and viaducts for a combined total of 946 kilometres, whether they were single projects or part of nearly 300 roads, highways and railways, 86 of which in Italy.

The Group is currently working on a number of public works, from the Unionport Bridge in New York, whose old structure handled 50,000-60,000 vehicle passages a day to the Versova-Bandra Sea Link in Mumbai, will require the construction of complex works at sea and stretch for a length of about 17.7 kilometres.

In Australia, Webuild was responsible for the skytrain bridge and viaduct for the Sydney Metro Northwest, the first driverless metro line in the country.