The view of the bridge early Friday evening before the closure began.

Looking south earlier Friday evening toward the bridge over Century Boulevard. Some demolition work has already been done.

Crenshaw/LAX Line Project Director Charles Beauvoir talks to the media late Friday afternoon; Metro Board Member Jackie DuPont-Walker is behind him.

Looking east on Century Boulevard. Photo by Jose Ubaldo/Metro.

The bridge span collapses on Saturday.

One of the bridge abutments early Sunday.

In July, it was time for the Century Crunch, when the old railroad bridge at the intersection of Aviation and Century was demolished to make way for the Crenshaw/LAX Line’s new elevated station. Photo: Metro.

More demolition work along Century Boulevard on Sunday.

Looking north on Sunday afternoon down the rail alignment: the old bridge abutment has been reduced to rubble.

The abutment that paralleled Aviation Boulevard across from the TraveLodge is gone.

Another view Sunday looking north on Aviation.

Installation of new traffic signals to replace the ones that had been mounted on the bridge.

Rebar from the old bridge that will be trucked off-site. Goodbye old bridge, hello Crenshaw/LAX Line!

New striping on the roadway completed Sunday night.

The intersection reopened at 1:30 a.m., four-and-a-half hours ahead of schedule.

Work on the demolition of the old railroad bridge and the bridge abutments remains ahead of schedule. The intersection of Aviation and Century boulevards is on track to reopen at 2 a.m. Monday, four hours ahead of the original schedule. 

Traffic congestion on the roads around Los Angeles International Airport was either light or manageable for most of the weekend thanks to the public taking heed of warnings to avoid the area, use the appropriate detours and/or take FlyAway bus or transit.

“The successful completion of ‘Century Crunch’ shows that when we all plan and work together, we can avoid undue burdens as we build the transit and airport infrastructure necessary to reduce congestion in the long-term,” said Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Eric Garcetti.

Over the weekend, the old railroad bridge and its abutments on the north and south side of Century Boulevard were removed. Traffic lanes on Century Boulevard were also reconfigured on Sunday to allow for construction of the new aerial Aviation/Century Station that will be part of the Crenshaw/LAX Line.

The light rail line will run for 8.5 miles between the Green Line and Expo Line and include two rail stations near the airport — one serving Century Boulevard and the other, at 96th Street, that will allow passengers to connect to a people mover that will carry them to LAX terminals. The project is funded by Measure R, the half-cent sales tax approved by Los Angeles County voters in 2008.

The demolition work on the bridge began early Saturday morning add was completed by early Sunday afternoon. Crews commenced to clean the streets and install new street signal posts at the Century/Aviation intersection — the old traffic signals were mounted on the bridge.

Below are a pair of time-lapse videos taken of the demolition work. The first one covers Friday night through Saturday morning and the second shows the work done Saturday to topple the bridge.

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