Talk about a working waterfront! The new East Span of the Bay Bridge, the largest public works project in California history, reaches new milestones seemingly every week as workers race toward the September 2013 finish line.
Photo 1 & 2 by Bill Hall/Caltrans, Photo 3 ©2012 Barrie Rokeach
Published: November, 2012
Talk about a working waterfront! The new East Span of the Bay Bridge, the largest public works project in California history, reaches new milestones seemingly every week as workers race toward the September 2013 finish line. In the months since installation of the nearly mile-long main cable on the signature self-anchored suspension (SAS) portion of the new span — and the last Bay Crossings progress report — contractors jacketed the main cable with 100 high-grade steel bands, connected 200 vertical suspender cables to the twin bridge decks, and transferred the 35,000-ton weight of the superstructure to the cable system from the temporary structures that had supported the roadway decks since 2010.
At the same time, workers on the east end of the span began construction on the eastbound portion of the Oakland Touchdown, which will link the new span with the toll plaza area; while crews on the west end poured thousands of cubic meters of concrete for the Yerba Buena Island Transition Structure, which will transition the side-by-side road decks of the SAS to the upper and lower levels of the 76-year-old Yerba Buena Island tunnel.
Clockwise from the upper left, these photos document the flurry of activity during the 2012 summer/fall season: 1) Each of the 100 cable bands is attached to the bridge superstructure by two steel suspender ropes; 2) Workers use hydraulic jacks — exerting as much as 400 tons of force at each corresponding location — to gradually tension each set of suspender ropes; 3) The SAS and Yerba Buena Island Transition Structure (YBITS) segments meet just a few feet north of the original 1936 East Span; 4) Crews on the YBITS project take extra precautions to protect existing structures on the east end of the island, including Coast Guard Station San Francisco, a historic naval torpedo warehouse, and the Nimitz House that served as Admiral Chester Nimitz’s residence during World War II; 5) Completion of the suspender cable installation shows off the asymmetrical profile of the SAS ; and 6) We have liftoff! The process of transferring the weight of the bridge decks to the cable system compressed the decks and lifted them off the temporary support structures. The SAS now truly is a self-anchored suspension span.
Photo 4 & 6 by Bill Hall/Caltrans, Photo 5 ©2012 Barrie Rokeach
