Port of Los Angeles’ Berth 83 Town Square Project—Design, Construction, and Impact of the Pandemic

The Town Square and Promenade project, a $36 million world-class redevelopment project built along 2,500 ft of prime waterfront real estate in San Pedro between Berths 74 and 83 at the Port of Los Angeles, was recently completed as the first phase of the redevelopment of the old Ports O’ Call Village. Berth 83 of this project includes two major marine structures, the Museum Landing and Museum Overlook, which use elevated public decks consisting of concrete-framed deck slabs supported on driven piles. This paper presents design features of the structures and foundations as well as construction approaches to address multiple challenges: aesthetic requirements of the developers, soil-structure interaction due to poor soil conditions, and, most importantly, protection of an existing seawall due to additional loads imposed during construction of the Museum Landing and Museum Overlook structures. In addition, creative solutions developed for construction to accommodate mandates and restrictions associated with the pandemic are presented.