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For Immediate Release

Construction Kickoff Scheduled for San Mateo-Hayward Bridge Widening

CONTACT:

Greg Bayol
510.286.6169

Réka Goode
510.464.7706/p>

Oakland, CA, Dec. 2, 1999. . . The most congested Bay Area freeway during the evening commute is currently the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. But relief is in sight: A construction project to add lanes to the low-rise section of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge will get a ceremonial kickoff on Monday, Dec. 6, 1999, at 10:30 a.m., at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center in Hayward. The slate of dignitaries expected to help celebrate the event include elected officials as well as representatives of regional organizations that have played a key role in the planning, design and funding of the new bridge (see list of speakers below).

Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2002, the $189 million bridge widening is one of several major Bay Area bridge projects that are in the works, mandated by Regional Measure 1 (RM1) – the 1988 voter-approved ballot measure that raised tolls on the region's seven state-owned toll bridges to a uniform $1 to fund a package of transportation improvements.

The need for more lanes is evident to anyone who travels regularly across the current span – traffic congestion on the bridge has increased significantly since the present structure was completed in 1967. The high-rise portion of the bridge has three lanes in each direction, but the low-rise trestle portion only has two, and neither segment of the span is equipped with shoulders. The widening project will result in three lanes in each direction for the entire length of the bridge and its approaches, and it will add two shoulders in each direction along the trestle portion of the bridge and its eastern approach. The entire bridge is currently being strengthened as part of the California Department of Transportation's toll bridge seismic retrofit program.

The widening project will include expansion of the existing toll plaza by three booths, making possible future electronic toll collection, and the existing two-mile-long westbound carpool lane will be extended one mile eastward along the eastern approach to the bridge. A pedestrian/bicycle overcrossing of State Route 92 on the Hayward side of the bridge will be built to provide improved north-south access for the existing Bay Trail in that area, and portions of the trail between the San Mateo-Hayward and the Dumbarton bridges on the eastern side of the bridge will be upgraded. In addition, a bicycle shuttle across the bridge itself is planned. Improvements also will be made to the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, a nature center owned and operated by the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District and located adjacent to bridge approach.

Caltrans is responsible for the design and construction of the bridge project, while funding and oversight lie in the hands of the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA), whose members also serve on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the transportation planning, funding and coordinating agency for the nine Bay Area counties.

Master of ceremonies for the construction kickoff will be Jim Beall Jr., Santa Clara County supervisor and chair of MTC/BATA. Invited speakers include

  • State Sen. Jackie Speier;
  • Caltrans Director José Medina;
  • Jeffrey A. Lindley, director, Federal Highway Administration Office of Travel Management;
  • Angelo Siracusa, vice-chair of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission;
  • Wayne Till, chief of the Bridge Section, 11th Coast Guard District;
  • MTC/BATA commissioners Mary Griffin, San Mateo County supervisor representing the county on the Commission; and Sue Lempert, San Mateo city councilmember representing the cities of San Mateo County.

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