By Karen Robes Meeks, Long Beach Press Telegram
LONG BEACH >> When crews started clearing the path for a new 1.5 mile-long span to replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge two years ago, they encountered more than a few pipes.
What lurked beneath the surface was a mishmash of old and active oil wells tangled with 10 miles of utility lines, many of them unmapped or deeper than expected.
And what normally takes weeks to cap and relocate dozens of wells and lines turned into months of labor intensive work to clear the way for large steel-and-concrete piles as deep as an 18-story building.
