Monday, September 14, 2009

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Construction

During the Labor Day weekend in 2007, the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was closed for a major piece of construction. At the time, they estimated that the next piece of the eastern span would be ready in the Spring of 2009.

Portions of this bridge collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. The western span, which is the familiar suspension bridge, will remain. This video shows the future plan for the bridge as expected back in 2007.



The next piece was put in place over the Labor Day weekend just passed in 2009. This time lapse shows a new double-deck section of bridge being slid into place to divert traffic onto the new bypass. The bypass is temporary and will eventually be demolished along with the entire old elevated roadway and cantilever bridge section after the new suspension portion of the bridge is built.



The replacement of the bridge will have been accomplished with only two weekend closures. Here's a simulation of what the bridge will look like.



The bridge will be complete in 2013 at a cost of $6.3B.

2 comments:

Mark H said...

I hadn't seen the finished view...NICE. We see this every year we're down to see Rodger's family....next time you're there, get off at Treasure Island, midway through, and you can see some pretty spectacular views both directions. THANKS for a very cool post on the SF WEST coast "stuff", Gavin.

Gavin said...

I've driven over this bridge many times. We'd fly into Oakland on Southwest and drive over to SF; or drive the other way over to Berkeley. Love the Bay area!