LOS ANGELES — It may not look like much, but construction crews are repairing the Artesia Bridge, an essential connector to the 91 Freeway, the Port of Long Beach and neighboring cities.

The bridge is a critical economic engine for the community, and perhaps nobody knows that better than Edward Padilla, the general manager of Crystal Casino right next door.

“We went from like 10% loss to a 20% loss to a 30% loss, you know, in revenue,” Padilla said.

A fire damaged the bridge in Dec. 2020, shutting it down until the city could access funding for repairs. Padilla estimates it handles about 30% of Compton’s traffic, which has had to get rerouted.

“Now to get to Crystal Casino, you have to take, you know, four turns and go into the city, and come into the casino,” he said.

And with five other casinos in the area, Padilla says regular visitors from Orange County are more likely to go elsewhere. The Crystal Casino and the Gateway Towne Center businesses have been hit the hardest by the bridge closure, reporting losses of $150,000 to $450,000 per week.   

“So, it’s just been not only devastating for the obviously for Crystal Casino but all those businesses,” Padilla said.

Crews broke ground in January, but many of those business owners are also frustrated it’s taken so long to secure funding to make the repairs. Compton Mayor Emma Sharif says she understands those frustrations.

“I know that this has taken a while. I do. I really do, but I really appreciate them with their patience,” she said.

Shari says State Senator Steven Bradford and Assemblymember Mike Gipson were pivotal in securing $12 million dollars from the state, but because of the location near train tracks, there were also several other agencies that had to be involved.

“You still had to deal with the Union Station train station. You had to deal with other entities that was [sic] there and trying to get all of that done is really what caused us not to be able to move any quicker than we would like to,” she said.

According to the city of Compton’s website, a homeless encampment was responsible for the fire in 2020. Compton eventually got help from the county to provide housing for the people living under the bridge.

“Pathway Home was a county program that came in and there was [sic] 33 people under that bridge and they were able to get all of those into bridge housing,” Sharif said.

Padilla and several other businesses now eagerly wait for the bridge to reopen, which the Mayor says will happen by the summer.

“We had a party in here when they broke ground!” Padilla said.

He’s hoping any visitors they lost will soon cross that bridge once again.