6th Street Viaduct reopens after LAPD shut it down for the fourth time in five days

A woman and girl walk on the 6th Street Viaduct using an umbrella for shade.

July 27, 2022 Updated 1:30 PM PT

The 6th Street Viaduct is open for business again.

The bridge connecting downtown Los Angeles to Boyle Heights reopened early Wednesday after the Los Angeles Police Department shut it down Tuesday night, the fourth time in five days it has done so due to what police called “illegal activity and public safety concerns.”

In a tweet Tuesday night, the LAPD stated that the bridge would be closed “until further notice.”

The closure lasted only a few hours.

The LAPD doesn’t anticipate closing the bridge Wednesday night, and would do so only on an “as-needed basis,” Officer Annie Hernandez said.

In the 17 days that the bridge has been open, it’s become a landmark for illegal takeovers and street racing, collisions and graffiti tags.

During Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting, LAPD Chief Michel Moore announced that the Bureau of Street Services has begun installing speed bumps along the 3,500-foot bridge in an attempt to stop drivers from performing illegal stunts. Safety fences will also be installed alongside pedestrian walkways to prevent climbers along the bridge’s arches.

In the last four days, the LAPD has impounded six vehicles from the bridge and issued 57 citations, according to Moore.

Victor Tabires, a Pico Gardens resident, calls the racing and street takeovers on the bridge “stupid and a waste of time.”

Tabires spent his Wednesday morning going for a jog across the bridge. Before the viaduct opened ,he would run at Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights, less than a mile from the new bridge.

Tabires said he enjoyed running across the bridge, and he hopes to make it a regular routine — should the bridge remain open regularly.

Other locals, like longtime Boyle Heights resident Mario Lopez, think the bridge closures are necessary because of the way the bridge has been disrespected.

Lopez, 35, said the people who show up to participate in the illegal takeovers end up leaving trash all over the roads.

“All these knuckleheads are coming from outside the community, doing doughnuts and vandalizing our bridge,” Lopez said while pushing his daughter in a stroller across the bridge Wednesday morning.

But Lopez also has concerns about closures. He wonders what could happen in the event of an emergency and locals are unable to cross the bridge because it’s closed.

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Melissa Hernandez

Melissa Hernandez was a member of the 2021-22 Los Angeles Times Fellowship class. She was born and raised in Miami and is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she studied journalism and environmental science. Previously, Hernandez was a summer intern for The Times in 2021, during which she covered general assignments on the Metro desk. Before arriving in California, she was an investigative/enterprise reporter for Fresh Take Florida, a news service offered by UF. Her previous work can be found in the Associated Press, U.S. News and World Report, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle. Hernandez is a three-time Society of Professional Journalists award winner and her biggest passion is long-form investigative reporting. She’s an avid lover of golden retrievers and Rocky Road ice cream.