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Last reviewed: Next review due: Reflects current Long Beach contractor bond requirements
✓ 2026 Requirements Verified
Long Beach, California

Long Beach Contractor BondCSLB Statewide + City Right-of-Way — Not the LA Bond

Short answer: every contractor working in Long Beach needs the same $25,000 statewide CSLB license bond required under California Business and Professions Code Section 7071.6. If your job also touches a public street, sidewalk, or excavation, the City Engineer can additionally require a Long Beach-specific bond under Long Beach Municipal Code Section 14.08.030 — a separate filing, at a separate counter, from anything Los Angeles requires. Long Beach is its own charter city, not a Los Angeles district, and its permit office does not honor an LA-filed bond or license.

$25,000
Statewide CSLB bond
2x cost*
City ROW bond, if required
$1,000
City bond floor (LBMC 14.08.030)
Not LA
Separate charter city
Treasury-listed sureties·CSLB-accepted bond forms·Verified August 2026

*City bond amount, when the City Engineer requires one, is twice the estimated cost of the permitted work, minimum $1,000 — see the requirements section below.

Why Long Beach's Contractor Mix Looks Different From a Typical LA County City

Long Beach anchors the Port of Long Beach, one of the nation's busiest seaports, and that single fact shapes the kind of contracting work this city generates. Alongside the residential remodels and tenant improvements common to any California city, Long Beach sees a disproportionate share of industrial, warehouse, rail-adjacent, and utility-trenching work tied to cargo movement through the harbor — plus a wave of infrastructure work along Ocean Boulevard, Pine Avenue, and the Alamitos Beach corridor as the city grows around the waterfront.

That mix matters for bonding because right-of-way and excavation work — running new utility laterals to a warehouse, cutting a curb for a driveway serving a logistics facility, trenching under a street near rail spurs — is exactly the category of work that triggers Long Beach's own city-level bond under LBMC Chapter 14.08, on top of the statewide CSLB bond every contractor already carries. A contractor doing a kitchen remodel in a Long Beach bungalow rarely sees this second bond. A contractor building out a Westside Long Beach industrial parcel very often does.

And because Port of Long Beach property is its own jurisdiction layered on top of the city — governed by Port policy and tariff, not the Long Beach Municipal Code — a contractor working inside the Harbor District can face a third, Port-specific process. We break down all three layers below, starting with the one contractors mix up most: assuming Long Beach and Los Angeles share a permit office.

The Mix-Up We See Most

Long Beach vs. Los Angeles: Two Cities, Two Permit Offices, Two Sets of Bonds

Both cities sit in Los Angeles County. Neither is a subdivision of the other. Confusing the two is the single most common error contractors make when quoting Long Beach work.

LayerLong BeachLos Angeles
Statewide license bond$25,000 CSLB (BPC § 7071.6) — identical everywhere in CA$25,000 CSLB (BPC § 7071.6) — identical everywhere in CA
Permitting authorityLong Beach Public Works / City EngineerLADBS & LA Bureau of Engineering
Right-of-way / excavation bondLBMC § 14.08.030 — 2x cost estimate, $1,000 floorLAMC § 62.105 — project-sized per permit
Building/grading permit bondLBMC Title 14, per City Engineer determinationLAMC § 91.106
City business licenseLong Beach Finance Dept., separate applicationLA Office of Finance, separate application
Port/harbor overlayPort of Long Beach Harbor Construction Permit Policy (deposit, not a bond)Port of LA is a separate authority; not covered here

A bond or permit filed with LADBS for a Los Angeles project does nothing for a Long Beach job site, and vice versa — each city runs an independent permit counter under its own municipal code. See our Los Angeles contractor bond page for the LADBS-side rules if you also work LA jobs, or the California contractor license bond hub for the statewide CSLB rules that apply no matter which city you're working in.

Long Beach's Own Bond: The LBMC § 14.08.030 Right-of-Way Requirement

Not every Long Beach job needs this. It applies when work touches the public right-of-way.

Official California (Long Beach) Requirements

"The City Engineer may require the permittee to furnish a surety bond, cash deposit, or letter of credit to ensure compliance with the conditions of the permit. Such bond shall be in an amount equal to twice the estimated cost of performing the work, provided that the minimum amount shall not be less than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), and the minimum duration of the bond shall not be less than one (1) year."
Long Beach Municipal Code — Public Works, Department of • Long Beach Municipal Code § 14.08.030 (Chapter 14.08, Title 14 — Streets and Sidewalks)
What triggers this bond
  • Excavation in or adjacent to a public street
  • Street improvements (curb cuts, driveway approaches, restoration work)
  • Temporary occupation of the public right-of-way (staging, lane closures, cranes)
  • Utility trenching or lateral installation under a city street
How the amount is set

The bond, cash deposit, or letter of credit is sized at twice the City Engineer's estimated cost of the permitted work, with a $1,000 statutory floor and a one-year minimum duration. Bond form and regulations are further governed by LBMC § 2.84.040.

Example: a right-of-way permit with a $3,000 restoration estimate produces roughly a $6,000 bond. A larger excavation with a $40,000 restoration estimate produces roughly an $80,000 bond. Get the Public Works estimate before pricing the bond.

Long Beach also requires its own city business license through the Finance Department's Business License Division — separate from both this permit bond and your CSLB license. Confirm current permit and business-license requirements directly at longbeach.gov/pw/services/permits before bidding right-of-way work.

A Third Layer, If You're Working Inside the Harbor District

The Port of Long Beach operates its own Harbor Construction Permit Policy for tenants and third parties performing significant construction on Port property — separate from the City of Long Beach's permit process above. Based on the Port's own policy record, this is structured as a refundable construction deposit tied to the estimated cost of the work, not a third-party surety bond, and it is administered by the Port's Construction Management division under Port tariff and policy rather than the Long Beach Municipal Code.

If your job is on a Port-owned or Port-leased parcel — a terminal, a rail yard, harbor infrastructure — confirm current deposit and documentation requirements with Port Construction Management before bidding; this is a different jurisdiction than the city streets covered by LBMC Chapter 14.08, and Port policy can be updated independent of the city's code. See the Port's facts and FAQ page for current contacts.

The Statewide Floor Underneath Every Long Beach Job: $25,000 CSLB Bond

Regardless of which of the layers above apply, this bond is non-negotiable for every California-licensed contractor.

Official California Requirements

"A bond required by this section shall be in the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000). The bond shall be executed by a sufficient surety... and shall be filed with the registrar by the licensee or applicant."
California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) • California Business and Professions Code § 7071.6

Quote the Statewide Bond First — the City Bond Follows at Permit Pull

The $25,000 CSLB bond is the one filing every Long Beach contractor needs from day one. Get that priced now.

Get Your Long Beach Contractor Bond Quote

What Long Beach Contractors Actually Pay

The $25,000 CSLB bond costs the same in Long Beach as anywhere else in California — annual premium runs roughly $125 to $1,000 (0.5% to 4% of the bond amount), priced almost entirely on personal credit. A contractor with 750+ credit typically lands near the bottom of that range; a contractor with credit under 620 lands well above it, sometimes into a $1,000–$2,500 range at 4%–10%+.

The city right-of-way bond under LBMC § 14.08.030, when required, is a different economic animal — it's not a flat annual premium but a security instrument sized to twice the estimated cost of your specific permitted work, with a $1,000 floor. Many Long Beach right-of-way sureties will write this as a percentage-of-face premium similar to the CSLB bond (roughly 1%–3% of the bond face for standard credit), but because the face amount is project-specific rather than fixed, ask your permit reviewer for the estimated cost figure before requesting a quote — that number, doubled, is what the surety underwrites.

Worked example — interior TI, no ROW work

CSLB license bond (BPC § 7071.6)$25,000 face
Annual premium (good credit)~$300
City ROW bondNot triggered
Total annual cost~$300

Worked example — curb cut & utility trench

CSLB license bond (BPC § 7071.6)$25,000 face
Public Works restoration estimate$5,000
City ROW bond (2x estimate, LBMC 14.08.030)$10,000 face
Combined face amount$35,000

Illustrative only — your City Engineer sets the actual restoration estimate.

For the full statewide premium model by credit tier, see our contractor license bond cost guide or run the numbers on the contractor license bond calculator.

Verified August 2026

Verify Yourself — Every Citation on This Page, Direct From the Source

BPC § 7071.6 — the statewide CSLB bond

leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

LBMC § 14.08.030 — the Long Beach right-of-way bond

library.municode.com/ca/long_beach

Long Beach Public Works permits

longbeach.gov/pw

Port of Long Beach facts & FAQ

polb.com

Long Beach Contractor Bond FAQs

Six questions specific to the LA/Long Beach jurisdiction split and the LBMC 14.08.030 bond.

Is a Long Beach contractor bond the same filing as a Los Angeles contractor bond?
No — and this is the most common mix-up we see from contractors working the harbor corridor. Long Beach is its own charter city with its own City Engineer, its own Municipal Code, and its own permit counter; it is not a district of Los Angeles and does not share LA's permitting apparatus, even though the two cities border each other and both sit in Los Angeles County. Every California contractor, regardless of city, carries the same statewide $25,000 CSLB license bond under Business and Professions Code Section 7071.6 — that part is identical. What differs is the city layer: pull a right-of-way or excavation permit in Long Beach and you are working under Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 14.08, not the Los Angeles Municipal Code sections that apply to LADBS permits. A bond, business license, or permit issued for Los Angeles work does not transfer to a Long Beach job site. See our /contractor-license-bonds/los-angeles-ca/ page for how the LA-specific layer works, and treat the two cities as separate filings even on projects that straddle the city line.
Does the City of Long Beach require its own bond on top of the CSLB license bond?
It can, but only for specific permit types — not for every contractor. Under Long Beach Municipal Code Section 14.08.030 (Chapter 14.08, Title 14 — Streets and Sidewalks), the City Engineer may require a permittee doing excavation, street improvement, or temporary right-of-way occupation work to furnish a surety bond, cash deposit, or letter of credit as a condition of the permit. A contractor doing interior tenant-improvement or remodel work that never touches the public right-of-way generally never triggers this — the CSLB bond is the only bond that job needs. A contractor trenching a utility line, cutting a curb, or occupying a street lane for a construction project needs the city-filed instrument on top of the statewide CSLB bond. Confirm with the Long Beach Public Works Department at the time you pull your permit — the City Engineer sets the requirement per permit, not by a blanket citywide rule.
How much is the Long Beach right-of-way / excavation bond under LBMC 14.08.030?
When the City Engineer requires one, the bond amount is set at twice the estimated cost of performing the permitted work, with a statutory floor of $1,000 and a minimum duration of one year, per Long Beach Municipal Code Section 14.08.030. That means the amount scales with your project — a small sidewalk cut with a $2,000 restoration estimate could see a $4,000 bond, while a larger excavation with a $50,000 restoration estimate could see a $100,000 bond. This is structurally different from the CSLB license bond, which is a flat $25,000 for every license regardless of project size. Bond regulations for city-required instruments are further governed by LBMC Section 2.84.040. Get your project's estimated cost from the Public Works permit reviewer before you shop the bond — the number they issue is what the surety underwrites against.
Do I need a Long Beach business license in addition to my CSLB state license?
Yes. Every contractor performing work within Long Beach city limits must hold a City of Long Beach business license through the Finance Department's Business License Division, separate from and in addition to your state CSLB contractor license. The city has confirmed this applies specifically to construction contractors — you will be asked to show your active California contractor's license and, where applicable, proof of workers' compensation coverage as part of the city business license application. This is a licensing/tax registration requirement, not a bond, but it is filed at a different counter (Long Beach City Hall, 411 W. Ocean Blvd.) than either your CSLB bond or your right-of-way permit bond — three separate touchpoints for a single Long Beach job.
Does the Port of Long Beach require a separate bond for harbor-district construction work?
The Port of Long Beach runs its own Harbor Construction Permit Policy for tenants and third parties performing significant construction within the Harbor District — but based on the policy record we could verify, it is structured as a refundable cash deposit tied to the estimated construction cost, not a third-party surety bond, and it is administered separately from both the CSLB license bond and the City of Long Beach's LBMC Title 14 right-of-way process. If your project is inside Port property (a terminal, a Port-leased parcel, or Harbor District infrastructure), confirm the current deposit and documentation requirements directly with the Port's Construction Management division before bidding — Port policy sits outside the city's municipal code and can change independent of anything the City Engineer requires for public streets outside Port jurisdiction.
I do work in both Long Beach and neighboring cities — do I need a different bond for each one?
Your $25,000 CSLB license bond travels with you statewide — you buy it once and it covers every California city, Long Beach included. What does not travel is any city-specific right-of-way or excavation bond: a bond posted for a Long Beach permit under LBMC 14.08.030 satisfies only that Long Beach permit. If your next job is in Los Angeles, Signal Hill, or Lakewood, that city's own permit office sets its own bonding requirement (or none, if the work stays off the public right-of-way) and you file separately there. Contractors who move between the South Bay and the harbor-adjacent cities regularly end up carrying the one statewide bond plus a rotating set of project-specific city bonds — budget for that when you're pricing right-of-way-heavy work across city lines.

Related Bond Resources

California City Pages

Los Angeles contractor bond (LADBS layer)California statewide CSLB bond hubCSLB bond — $25,000 statute-level detailAll 50 state contractor bonds

Tools & Cost Guides

Contractor license bond calculatorContractor bond cost by state & creditSurety bond cost guideCSLB license classifications (all 43 Class C codes)

Other California Bonds

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Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
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Eric Drummond, Licensed Surety Producer
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Verified August 2026

Don't file an LA bond for a Long Beach job. Get the right one, filed today.

The $25,000 statewide CSLB bond under BPC § 7071.6 is the first thing every Long Beach contractor needs — and it's the same one whether your next job is here, in LA, or anywhere else in California. If your Long Beach permit also needs the LBMC § 14.08.030 right-of-way bond, we can quote both.

Get your Long Beach contractor bond quote

Sources: BPC § 7071.6 · LBMC § 14.08.030 · longbeach.gov/pw · polb.com