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Carrying the first four tower segments, the Zhenhua 18 steams past the San Francisco skyline on its way to the staging area at Pier 7 in Oakland. (All photos ©2010 Barrie Rokeach)

A crane transfers the tower shafts to barges for the last leg of their trans-Pacific voyage — to the construction zone adjacent to Yerba Buena Island. The next two photos show the lifting of the first tower segment — a 14-hour operation.

Summer 2010

East Span Update:
At Long Last, the Suspension Span’s Tower Rises From the Bay

The most distinctive feature of the monumental new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is its graceful, tapering tower, which eventually will reach 525 feet into the sky. So excitement was high when the first tier of tower segments sailed across the Golden Gate in early July after a three-week trans-Pacific journey, and after more than eight years of construction activity on the new bridge. More thrilling still was the operation to tilt the first 1,200-ton steel tower segment to an upright position, and then to place it on the foundations in the Bay — a delicate and press-worthy event that drew officials from the three agencies building the bridge — Caltrans, MTC’s Bay Area Toll Authority and the California Transportation Commission.

The tower is the visual centerpiece of the daring self-anchored suspension span (SAS) that will bridge the gap between the already built East Span Skyway and Yerba Buena Island. This first tier of tower pieces reaches vertically from the water line to the SAS decks, which have been taking shape since February of this year. Both the tower and the deck sections for the SAS are being fabricated by the Zhenhua Heavy Industry Company, Ltd. in Shanghai.
— Brenda Kahn

Watch the tower rise at <bata.mtc.ca.gov>.

Transactions Summer 2010 Issue: Contents