Owned by the Port of Los Angeles and part of the larger Los  Angeles Waterfront district, the recently completed Wilmington Waterfront Promenade encompasses 9 acres along the water’s edge in the historic harbor community of Wilmington, Calif. Officially completed and opened to the public in May 2024, the 1,300-foot-long promenade features a picnic-friendly public pier, a floating dock with several berths, waterfront seating, tidal steps, a park and children’s playground, and scenic views of ships in the distance. Situated close to a range of popular restaurants, craft breweries, artisan shops, bike trails and historic attractions, the project has further cemented the Wilmington Waterfront Promenade as a destination for local residents and tourists.

Shaping the former property into the attractive waterfront space it is today was no small task, but Elecnor Belco Electric Inc., Chino, Calif., provided the project’s electrical support.

An investment in beautification

Kicked off in January 2021, the Wilmington Waterfront project involved a public bid to general contractors, and Elecnor Belco was the electrical subcontractor selected by the awarding GC, Sully-Miller Contracting Co., Brea, Calif.

“The project was bid during the heart of the pandemic, but fortunately for most of the public works contractors, our work never stopped, and we were able to continue doing roadway improvements as ‘essential workers,’” said John L. Wong, executive vice president of growth and strategy for Elecnor Belco.

According to Wong, the Port of Los Angeles invested in the Wilmington Waterfront to beautify the long-underused space and transform it into a more consumer-friendly, mixed-use complex, complete with shops and restaurants.

“The area hadn’t been upgraded in a long time, so the port decided to make it more attractive, useful and welcoming, similar to the thriving mixed-use space recently created at the Port of Long Beach a few miles away,” Wong said. “With this development and its growing array of shops and sit-down restaurants, the port hopes to increase the Wilmington Waterfront’s value for recreation and entertainment purposes.”

Wholly designed by the Port of Los Angeles, Elecnor Belco’s scope of work included full responsibility for Wilmington Waterfront’s electrical and communication systems within the construction of open green space, a public plaza, parking courts and the waterfront promenade. Other contractors helped prepare the space for electrical work by realigning Water Street, reconstructing the seawall at berths 182 to 186, abating asbestos and remediating lead within 10 existing buildings, reconstructing the rock revetment along the seawall (to protect it from incoming water and erosion), installing a steel sheet pile wall and prestressed concrete piles, constructing restrooms and overseeing all landscaping and hardscaping. 

“Our work included the installation of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power electrical transmission vaults, a backbone conduit duct bank and transformer vaults,” Wong said. “We also installed more than 5 miles of utility conduit and 4 miles of conduit dedicated to energizing both street and park lighting systems, including pedestrian walk lighting, security camera infrastructure and conduit and LED lighting in the subfloor of a newly constructed deck.”

In total, the team installed 104 lighting and security poles (several of which also included Wi-Fi access points) and 29 high-definition security cameras, as well as switchgear and panelboards to support reliable power distribution throughout the site.

An Elecnor Belco electrician wires up a switchgear unit as part of the
electrical system powering the entire waterfront park.

Navigating a stacked-trade site

At the height of their work between May 2021 and December 2022, Elecnor Belco had 16 crew members on the job, but Wong confirmed that the project was no walk in the park.

“It was a long project, based on all of the architectural details, intricacies of the work and trades involved,” he said. “It’s not a big area, but having so many different trades all working on top of each other—from concrete, asphalt and paving to excavation, landscaping and more—required a lot of scheduling and coordination, and we followed a very comprehensive schedule. 

“The underground work involving water and sewer lines, storm drains, gas and underground distribution all had to get done first, and that took a lot of time,” Wong said. “We did our portion, but many other nonelectrical trades were involved in that process, too, so we completed our work and then had to wait, which is a scheduling challenge when you’re on a job that involves multiple trades. At times, it felt like a tug-of-war to secure access to areas ready for electrical work.”

Luckily, the Elecnor Belco team had other projects on their docket at the same time, so their field supervisors were able to move crew members between projects as needed as they waited on other trades to complete their work at the Wilmington Waterfront.

However, other environmental challenges confronted the team—particularly those related to doing underground electrical work in the vicinity of ocean water, which can create concerns for electric shock and biohazards.

“There’s high risk with water when you’re doing underground work, and we encountered that everywhere, especially during high tides, because water finds its way everywhere,” Wong said of the unplanned water intrusion they experienced, which required the team to plan its work around tide schedules. 

Elecnor Belco team pours concrete to protect the newly
installed electrical duct bank infrastructure.

“We installed and protected our infrastructure [conduit] first and then installed the cables, but, in digging the trenches to install our infrastructure, we had to pump and vacuum water out of the excavation site and into a tank so that it could be removed from the site in an environmentally responsible way to avoid contaminating the surrounding soil,” he said. 

The team worked closely with the GC and other trades to implement pumping and containment strategies. The goal was to keep progress moving forward without compromising safety or quality.

While they successfully worked through the pandemic with only a few team members becoming ill, Wong said that era changed the way Elecnor Belco had to procure material.

“Quite a few of the products and equipment required for this project were manufactured with raw materials and customization, and, as most other contractors experienced as well, there were shortages of materials that caused delays and cost escalations,” he said. “Though we were located right by the Port of Los Angeles—the very site through which many of the products we’d ordered were flowing—all the vessels at our port sat for weeks because of short staffing there due to COVID. Like so many other contractors who struggled through these challenges, we had to wait on products, and most were delayed.”

Additionally, significant rainstorms in the Los Angeles area affected the team’s ability to work and ended up stalling the project several times.

Community-focused development

“Ultimately, this project got rave reviews from the Port of Los Angeles and stakeholders, who praised our ability to deliver electrical systems that blended functionality with aesthetics to support the park’s safety, accessibility and long-term maintainability,” Wong said. 

Elecnor Belco’s efforts also earned the company a 2024 Project Excellence Award from NECA in the Streetlighting/Traffic Signals, Over $1 Million category. 

“We’re a transportation contractor by trade, and, to have received an award like that is amazing because it showed that we can successfully handle other aspects of electrical contracting beyond transportation and streetlighting, and that our areas of expertise are very well-rounded,” he said. “Our NECA award is a testament to the strength of the planning, coordination and execution that went into delivering the final result.

“We like a challenge, and our work on the Wilmington Waterfront Promenade will hopefully tee us up for more of those kinds of jobs,” Wong said.

Elecnor Belco crew members investigate a maintenance
hole as part of underground utility work.

Lessons learned

As for the lessons learned, Wong said the project was a reminder of the importance of being flexible and engaging in clear and continuous communication.

“Around the time that this project was bidding, we’d just completed another Port job at the San Pedro Waterfront Promenade and Town Square, which gave us a distinct advantage,” Wong said. 

That job helped shape a more efficient, informed approach to the Wilmington Waterfront job, particularly as it related to coordinating work along the waterfront, managing overlapping utilities and aligning with port expectations.

“I’ve been in this industry for over 35 years and can confirm that this wasn’t an easy project by any means—it took a lot of time and effort to pull this one through and I’m very proud of every person who was involved at Elecnor Belco, from our office to the field,” he said.

Thanks to their efforts, the Wilmington Waterfront has been transformed into a vibrant, well-lit and secure public space that reflects the Port of Los Angeles’ long-term vision for community-­focused development. Wong said that everyone at his firm learned a lot from the experience.

“It was a very unique project that involved a lot of different systems and work that some of our team members hadn’t done before,” he said, “but, in the end, we’re all better for it.

“Overall, it was a rewarding project to be part of because it gave us a chance to apply lessons from past work, deliver a high-­quality result and contribute to a space that the public will enjoy for years,” Wong concluded. “It’s the kind of job that reinforces why we do what we do.”

Header Image: An aerial view of the completed Wilmington Waterfront Promenade, with Elecnor Belco’s lighting and electrical work illuminating the landscape

Elecnor Belco Electric inc.