With the full 16-month closure of the Vincent Thomas Bridge fast approaching, three community open house events are scheduled in October to provide information and answer questions about the project.

The heavily traveled, four-lane bridge that arches over the Port of Los Angeles’ Main Channel, heading west to east between Terminal Island and San Pedro, is also a key connector for San Pedro-to-Long Beach commuter traffic. But it will be closed for 16 months beginning Nov. 1 so Caltrans can replace the roadway.

While the road, or bridge “deck,” has been frequently repaired throughout the years since 1963, that is no longer a sufficient fix, state transportation authorities have said. A complete replacement of the deck is now needed.

Two of the community meeting events, on Oct. 1 and 8, will be in-person gatherings and the third — on Oct. 16 — will be live-streamed and online only.

The details for those meetings are:

6-8 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Wilmington Recreation Center, 325 N. Neptune Ave
6-8 p.m. Oct, 8 at Peck Park Community Center, 560 N. Western Ave., in San Pedro.
6-8 p.m. Oct. 14, virtual meeting only. To join online, go to zoom.us/j/89095512946, or call 669-900-6833 or 833-548-0282. The webinar ID is 890 9551 2946.

The meetings will highlight the project’s status and construction schedule.

Attendees will receive a presentation from Caltrans personnel detailing the construction schedule, detour routes and traffic management plan, as well as Caltrans’ ongoing efforts to address anticipated construction impacts.

A question-and-answer period will be included in each event and recordings of the meetings will be shared online subsequently.

The project, expected to cost $750 million, will usher in yet more focus on the aging bridge after the roadway is completed.

The Port Los Angeles and the city have teamed up with the California Department of Transportation to research the likely need to replace the bridge altogether.

While the road repairs are needed now, the much-larger problem looming is expected to require an entirely new bridge to be built.

The major driver is that commercial ships are growing in size and the vertical clearance under the Vincent Thomas Bridge is no longer enough to accommodate the newer vessels.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka suggested the entire process — with the Vincent Thomas remaining open and functioning during construction of a new bridge that would be built parallel to it — could be completed perhaps 10 years from now.

But the cost will be challenging and the process currently is still in its research phase, with port, city and state officials gathering data from consultants and designers.

The Port of Long Beach, facing a similar dilemma, got an earlier jump on replacing its aging Gerald Desmond Bridge with the Long Beach International Bridge that opened in 2020.

The Long Beach bridge wound up costing $1.46 billion. But it was expected to cost $950 million when first approved in 2010.

For more information on the deck replacement project and the timeline, meanwhile, visit the Caltrans’ Bridge Deck Replacement Project page.