For the 260,000-plus drivers traversing the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge each day, the only sign that a major construction project is under way is the line of giant red cranes standing at the ready. But just below motorists’ line of sight, work on the new East Span has been proceeding at a steady pace.
By Brenda Kahn
Published: May, 2006
For the 260,000-plus drivers traversing the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge each day, the only sign that a major construction project is under way is the line of giant red cranes standing at the ready. But just below motorists’ line of sight, work on the new East Span has been proceeding at a steady pace.
The monumental public works project is taking shape just to the north of the seismically weak, existing East Span, which fractured in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Already, the Skyway portion of the new East Span is more than 85 percent complete, and juts a mile or so out into the Bay from the Oakland shore. And work is getting under way in earnest on the crowning piece of the 2.2-mile structure — the tower element that will connect the Skyway with Yerba Buena Island and, just beyond, the West Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
In engineering terminology, the tower portion is known as the self-anchored suspension span, or SAS. It is designed to complement the suspension design of the West Span while taking the technology to the next level. The structure is asymmetrical, meaning that from the side, the network of cables will form two unequal triangles, giving the new East Span a unique silhouette.
The technically challenging SAS was put on hold for many months while the state rebid the construction contract in an effort to bring down costs. The process yielded good results in March of this year when two solid bids came in. Less than 30 days later, on April 18, Caltrans officials awarded the contract to the lower bidder, a joint-venture team of Pennsylvania-based American Bridge and Fluor Enterprises of Viejo, Calif. Their price of $1.43 billion is well within the Caltrans engineers’ $1.45 billion estimate for the project. Among its many public works credentials, American Bridge played a major role in building the Bay Bridge back in the 1930s.
We now have all of the approvals that we need to move forward. The bridge’s funding is secure and we have a good bid, said Caltrans Director Will Kempton, who signed the letter awarding the contract.
Also on hand at the award event was Steve Heminger, executive director of both the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and its subunit, the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA). BATA played a central role in developing the unique design for the new East Span and issued bonds to pay for the project. All great bridges set new standards for creativity and innovation. We are hoping that this bridge does the same, said Heminger.
The ceremony for the awarding of the SAS contract was deliberately timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of The Great 1906 San Francisco Quake by way of underscoring that the new East Span is first and foremost a seismic safety project.
We are looking forward to not only a seismically safe bridge, but a stunning addition to the region’s skyline, said John Barna, executive director of the California Transportation Commission (CTC).
At the direction of the state Legislature, Caltrans, BATA and the CTC have joined together as the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC) to keep the Bay Area’s Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program, and particularly the new East Span, on track in the coming months.
Whereas, the current East Span is double-decked, the new version will feature side-by-side decks that will afford travelers spectacular views. The new bridge is expected to open to traffic in at least one direction by late 2012. Contractor incentives can potentially shorten the construction timeline by up to six months. With its tower jutting 525 feet above the water line, dramatic lighting and asymmetrical profile, the new East Span is destined to become another distinctive San Francisco landmark for generations to come.
The New East Span in Vivid Color
Caltrans has been documenting construction of the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, with District 4 photographers Bill Hall and John Huseby capturing the mega project from every angle – land, sea, air – and through every stage of construction. A selection of their dramatic color photos are on display at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s offices, located at the Joseph P. Bort Metro Center, 101 Eighth Street in Oakland (Lake Merritt BART). The exhibit is open to the public from 9AM-4PM weekdays. For more views, go to www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/photography, or visit the new Bay Bridge Web site at www.baybridgeinfo.org.
Former Blue-collar Worker Goes Out on a Limb to Photograph New Span
By Brenda Kahn
Joe Blum may live in a house in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights, but his second home is out on the Bay, on the construction site for the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Since the start of soil sampling, he typically has been spending a couple days a week, in sometimes precarious perches, photographing the men and women who are putting the bridge together, humongous piece by humongous piece.
Blum brings an insider’s viewpoint to the task of documenting this monumental public works project. He worked as a boilermaker, shipfitter and welder for 25 years before trading in his laborer’s tools for a camera. He started out photographing the shipyards and metal trades before turning his attention to bridge construction — both the new East Span and the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge across the Carquinez Strait, which opened in 2003.
I try to get as close as possible to the work and, when lucky, get an image that almost seems to be taken from the point of view of the worker in the midst of his or her labor, Blum says in his artist’s statement.
Like the skilled workers he’s covering, Blum is impervious to fog and rain, and can be found out on the Bay at all hours of the day and night. His preferred medium is black and white film (shot with a 35 mm Nikon or larger format Pentax), although he also has been known to shoot digital color images.
By intent, his images evoke the great Depression-era photographers, and especially those who captured the building of the original Bay Bridge in the 1930s. The esteemed Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley campus has taken notice, acquiring a number of Blum’s photos for its Pictorial Collection.
I have chosen to document the construction of this bridge with black and white film, and to develop and print archival fiber prints, not merely for the inherent beauty and clarity of this photographic process, but to attempt to carry on the tradition and show solidarity with the people who photographed the original construction of this extraordinary bridge, Gabriel and Raymond Moulin and Peter Stackpole, Blum writes.
Building the New East Span, a collection of black and white photos by Joseph A. Blum, is now on display at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s offices, located at the Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland (Lake Merritt BART). The show continues through May 31, 9AM-4PM weekdays. For more information, please call (510) 817-5773.
