The countdown is under way to the start of a full closure of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge over the 2007 Labor Day weekend, during which two operations — a critical seismic retrofit to the bridge deck and FasTrak® lane reconfiguration — will be performed. Beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, August 31, the bridge will close to traffic in both directions, and will remain closed until 5 a.m. on Tuesday, September 4.
Just east of the Yerba Buena Island tunnel, construction crews are working round-the-clock on a replacement for a key chunk of the upper road deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The piece will also function as a link to the tunnel for the new East Span that is now under construction.
By Karin Betts
Published: August, 2007
Over the three-plus days of closure, construction crews will demolish and replace a 350-foot segment of the westbound upper viaduct near the Yerba Buena Island tunnel’s eastern entrance. Simultaneously, on the Oakland side of the bridge, crews will reconfigure the toll plaza as part of a regionwide effort to smooth the way for FasTrak® users.
On Yerba Buena Island, the new deck section and a moveable support system have taken shape over the past few months just to the south of the existing roadway, at grade with the upper deck. After the bridge closes, the fast-paced plan is to demolish the existing roadway, clear and haul away the debris, lay temporary tracks across the lower deck, and then roll the new road segment into position. Once the operation is begun it must be completed before traffic can be allowed back on the bridge.
Weighing in at a whopping 6,500 tons and measuring nearly as long as a football field, the new segment will be precisely placed into a gap that is only six inches longer than the piece itself. Once the joints are finished, the upper deck will be striped and the lower deck will be cleared of the skid tracks and other equipment, all in time for reopening before Tuesday morning commute traffic.
Replacing the Yerba Buena Island structure is a far better strategy than retrofitting the existing structure in place because the replacement viaduct will have a 150-year life span similar to the rest of the new East Span, said Andrew Fremier, deputy executive director of the Bay Area Toll Authority, which is staffed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
While the Bay Bridge is closed for the Yerba Buena Island operation, Caltrans workers also will be busy on the Oakland side of the bridge making changes to the toll plaza lanes. An additional FasTrak®-only lane will be added at the Bay Bridge, reserving eight of the 20 total lanes for exclusive use by FasTrak® electronic toll tag customers during peak hours. The lanes will be strategically placed to allow easy access for FasTrak®-equipped vehicles approaching the bridge from Interstates 80, 580 or 880, and will be extended to over four times their current length to speed the approach to the plaza for FasTrak® users. Drivers who pay cash may face significantly longer lines.
These changes will improve the overall efficiency of the entire toll plaza, explained Fremier. Motorists who don’t already pay their tolls with FasTrak® would be wise to make the switch right away.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Caltrans and other transportation agencies are working together to alert the traveling public to the Labor Day weekend closure of the Bay Bridge, and to ensure mobility options for transbay travelers. BART will run all-night service to select stations over the weekend, and extra vessels will be deployed to expand ferry service on select routes.
In addition to reconfiguring the FasTrak®-only lanes, BATA and Caltrans also will install new overhead signs and pavement markings to direct drivers to the correct lanes at the Bay Bridge toll plaza.
