Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Los Angeles’ Sixth Street Bridge was supposed to be a triumph. Completed in 2022 after years of delays and cost overruns, the new structure connecting Boyle Heights to downtown LA was hailed as a civic landmark.
At $588 million, it was the most expensive bridge project in the city’s history. Its ten soaring arches and thousands of LED lights led its designers to call it the “Ribbon of Light.”
Today, the bridge is dark. Within months of its opening, thieves began tearing copper wire from its electrical infrastructure to sell for scrap. By one estimate, nearly 7 miles of copper were stripped from the bridge, extinguishing what was meant to be its defining feature.
The city’s new showpiece soon became a monument to broader civic dysfunction. Officials now estimate that repairing and relighting the bridge in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will cost $2.5 million.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
______________________
Shawn Regan is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.