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Spring 2011

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge: East Span Update

Now at their full height, the four legs making up the East Span’s tapering tower seem to glow in the late afternoon sun. (Photo ©2011 Barrie Rokeach)

East Span Traffic Shift

Heads up for a major traffic shift coming in late May at the Oakland end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Eastbound traffic on the existing bridge will be switched to a bypass so as to accelerate completion of the Oakland touchdown for the new East Span. The latest in a series of traffic shifts that motorists have weathered as part of the complex Bay Bridge seismic safety construction project, this transitioning of traffic to the new lanes will take place without a bridge closure.

Stay tuned to baybridgeinfo.org for updates.

You Can’t Miss It — New Bay Bridge East Span Makes a Towering Statement

If you haven’t driven across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge lately, you will be in for a surprise when you do. The project to construct a new East Span parallel to the old bridge has made impressive progress in the last few months, with the tower now nearly complete and thrusting several hundred feet above the upper deck of the existing bridge.

In an intense, five-day operation in late February and early March, crews installed the last tier of steel legs, bringing the tower height to 480 feet. A trio of finishing touches will bring the tower to its final height of 525 feet above the water line: a grillage tying the four legs into a single, tapering unit (installed in mid-April); a saddle to cradle the main cable; and a decorative tower head.

All four tiers of tower legs were fabricated at the Zhen Hua Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. in Shanghai, where workers are now busy finishing the last few remaining steel deck pieces for the new East Span. Once the final deck sections are shipped this summer, attention will shift to stringing the cable that will support the new East Span, which will offer several magnitudes of increased seismic safety over the 1930s-era existing East Span.
— Brenda Kahn

Watch the bridge construction in real time at: bata.mtc.ca.gov

Transactions Spring 2011 Issue: Contents