APWA Awards BEST Project of the Year to Front Street Beautification Project

Los Angeles, CA, November 14, 2024.  The American Public Works Association, Southern California Chapter, awarded BEST Project of the Year to Front Street Beautification in the Traffic, Mobility & Beautification Category, Regional Division. Under the authority of the Port of Los Angeles (POLA), the longtime Los Angeles-based civil engineering firm, D R Consultants & Designers Inc. (DRC), served as the prime consultant for design and construction oversight. The project with POLA and the adjacent San Pedro community began in 2015, conceived to make Front Street and the surrounding area an aesthetically enjoyable destination location. 

“DRC worked closely with the Port and local residents to articulate a vision to beautify this public waterfront area, which is filled with amenities for users, residents, and visitors alike,” said Wanda Martinez, DRC’s President and CEO.

Front Street extends Harbor Boulevard, north of I-110 and SR-47 on/off ramps, to Pacific Avenue, approximately one-half mile. Enhancements include a landscaped pedestrian multi-use walkway, pedestrian lighting, and vine-shrouded fencing, separated from an adjacent Port terminal. Improvements include geometric corrections, curb and gutter, an asphalt concrete berm, drainage, street lighting, a bikeway corridor, signalized pedestrian crosswalks, and a meandering walkway within enhanced surface landscaping.

Its unique aspects stood out to the selection committee. “The main challenge involved conflicts with substantial underground utilities, abandoned oil pipelines after decades of Port infrastructure, and limited As-Built records. Resolving this challenge added urgency during design,” said Jimmy Todorov, P.E., DRC’s Civil Design Lead.

To avert these conflicts and control costs, Mr. Todorov said the design team “implemented a ‘protect in place strategy’ from the outset, which prevented delays and kept the project on-time and on-budget.  We worked around everything that was beneath us.”

Front Street Beautification’s quality-of-life improvement was a notable aspect that APWA considered.  It is part of POLA’s LA Waterfront connectivity plan to enhance mobility with a network of well-connected, multi-benefit spaces accessible for all waterfront neighborhoods.  It also blocks with greenery the Port’s industrial landscape of a container terminal with shipping crates stacked up to 100 feet high.

Front Street Beautification is the second APWA SoCal Chapter BEST of the Year Project for DRC as the prime consultant. In 2008, DRC won with the POLA’s Knoll Hill Widening & Site Improvement Project, in the Parks & Recreation Category.