Search title image

TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

November-December 2009

Bay Bridge Update:
Officials Turn Eyes Toward China

A completed steel deck section seems to glow against the evening sky in Shanghai, China. (Photo: Tom Paiva)

With Labor Day weekend operations on the Bay Bridge successfully completed, the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee now turns its attention to China, where the first steel segments for the new East Span’s signature self-anchored suspension section are set to ship out this fall after a series of production challenges. MTC’s Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA), Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission are working with their Chinese counterparts to accelerate fabrication of the deck and tower pieces so as to still meet the 2013 target for the full opening of the bridge.

“The most critical factor associated with the opening of the bridge is the fabrication, delivery and erection of the steel from Shanghai,” declared Andrew Fremier, MTC’s deputy executive director overseeing BATA.
— John Goodwin

A new photo exhibit at MTC’s offices provides a window into the Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co. in Shanghai, where an army of some 1,500 men and women are fabricating the deck and tower sections. The show can be viewed weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the second floor of the MetroCenter in Oakland.

Contents