The new Bay Bridge

[bugo]

It looks like half of it is missing.  The old bridge was much, much cooler.  Besides, they're using Chinese materials to build the bridge, and I GUARANTEE it will collapse in a bad earthquake.

[kkt]

It looks like half of it is missing.  The old bridge was much, much cooler.  Besides, they're using Chinese materials to build the bridge, and I GUARANTEE it will collapse in a bad earthquake.

Well, you'd have to define bad.  I suppose you could define no earthquake as bad unless it knocked down the new Bay Bridge span.  No agency anywhere is more concerned with bridges that won't fall down in earthquakes than Caltrans.

The USA has no monopoly on good building materials.  China will make products as good (or as bad) as the buyer wants to pay for.

[myosh_tino]

It looks like half of it is missing.  The old bridge was much, much cooler.  Besides, they're using Chinese materials to build the bridge, and I GUARANTEE it will collapse in a bad earthquake.

The new span of the Bay Bridge is a Self-Anchored Suspension (SAS) bridge and while I agree the old cantilever bridge looks cooler, that type of bridge is too rigid for an area known for having big earthquakes.  That is why a section of that bridge collapsed in 1989 in a magnitude 6.9 quake.  If we were to get a magnitude 8 quake, I would GUARANTEE the old bridge would completely collapse... the new bridge, probably not.

I suppose they could have built a traditional suspension bridge but then it would have looked a lot like the western span.  I like the SAS design.  It's different and it is a hell of a lot better than a plain old causeway which was the original design.

[brownpelican]

How's construction coming along with the new East Bay span? What is the anticipated completion date?

[myosh_tino]

How's construction coming along with the new East Bay span? What is the anticipated completion date?

The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge is supposed to open on Labor Day which is September 2nd, 2013.  The entire bridge will close on August 28th so construction crews can make the final connection between the new bridge and the eastern approaches.  There are plans to hold a celebration including fireworks and a bridge walk on Sunday, September 1st.

[cpzilliacus]

Problems with the new bridge span?

KPIX Channel 5: Bay Bridge May Have Many More Bad Bolts, Flawed Tower Welds

Transportation officials are concerned about the possibility that the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge may have many more bad bolts than originally thought, KPIX 5 has learned.

Sacramento Bee:  Bay Bridge tower welds flawed, need repairs

Welds on the iconic tower of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are flawed and must be repaired, compounding other problems that have beset the project and could delay its planned September opening.

Sources confirmed that the California Department of Transportation is working with contractors to fix defects on portions of 20 welds, each nearly 33 feet long and up to 4 inches thick — a protracted process that has been under way for months. The welds are necessary for the tower to withstand a major earthquake.

[cpzilliacus]

TOLLROADSnews: SASsy story in San Fran - Caltrans and BATA have problems on iconic new East Span

[SSOWorld]

Now why does that not surprise me??

[andy3175]

 A bit more came out yesterday in the Sacramento Bee, which has noted flaws in the new bridge. These flaws may delay the planned Labor Day 2013 opening:

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/18/5431401/corrosion-plagues-new-bay-bridge.html

Corrosion plagues new Bay Bridge span

Doug Coe, a normally confident engineering manager for the new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, walked into the nearby Oakland project office looking as if he were fighting back tears. Joel Sayre, then a bridge spokesman who worked there, remembers tensing in alarm.

Engineers had discovered an alarming corrosion problem with the "post-tension" tendons, and were pumping gallons of rusty water from the ducts that held them, Sayre said Coe told him. "Oh my god," he recalled Coe saying that afternoon in late spring of 2006. "What are we going to do?"

Coe, whom the California Department of Transportation would not permit to answer questions, was talking about thousands of steel tendons in the skyway section of the new span — the elevated roadway that runs from the Oakland footing to the suspension bridge near Yerba Buena Island. Ducts containing the tendons, crucial to structural integrity, had been left unsealed. Rainfall and water used to cure concrete, tainted by construction debris exposed to salty bay mist, had entered many of them.

Among The Bee's findings:

- Beginning more than two years before Coe's discovery, inspectors frequently warned about water leaks and corrosion. Bridge spokesman Andrew Gordon could not say why officials failed to address the problems without significant research.

- Experts blamed water problems on design or construction errors. Leaks of grout — a cement-based filler that normally prevents or halts corrosion — between hundreds of ducts forced long construction delays that left tendons exposed. They said the errors made further, unseen corrosion of tendons likely.

- Caltrans used the wrong tests for corrosion, resulting in "essentially useless" findings, said UC Berkeley engineering professor Thomas Devine, an internationally known authority on corrosion-caused cracking in metals. He called the agency's research "woefully inadequate" and "meaningless" for detecting "environmentally assisted cracking," which can worsen as tendons fatigue under stress, and can ultimately cause breaks.

- University of South Florida professor Alberto A. Sagüés, sole independent evaluator of the Caltrans study, gave it a vote of confidence based on faulty assumptions provided by Caltrans. Sagüés declined to comment.

What's next?

Experts agreed that strong skyway foundations and piers, plus the factor of safety — "10 percent extra tendons," according to Caltrans — make a disastrous collapse of the bridge improbable, even in a devastating quake.
But if tendons are more corroded than Caltrans' study indicates, said Hawkins of the University of Illinois, a massive temblor might render one or more sections of the skyway unusable.

Another looming question, experts said, is whether taxpayers have purchased the $6.4 billion bridge they were promised, or a structure that will require costly repairs relatively soon.

"It's reasonable to suggest, strongly suggest, that a number of experts who are completely independent, knowledgeable in these areas, sit down and review what has been done," said Weyers, of Virginia Tech, "... and give suggestions about what would need to be done."

Regards,
Andy

[hm insulators]

I recommend "The Handyman's Secret Weapon: Duct Tape!"

[florida]

I'm not going to test drive the new bridge due to these issues....but I do want to drive across the old one before it's torn down.

[ARMOURERERIC]

Crazy Glue

[Jessica Black]

I actually like the new eastern approach span for the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge (Bay Bridge for locals). It's a hell of a lot better than the original span. The old one made me feel sick. But, the new span makes me go.    I can't wait to visit San Francisco in 2016, and cross the bridge.

[ZLoth]

Just one thing.... compare how long it took to complete the original bridge with how long it took to construct this replacement.

[triplemultiplex]

But there wasn't an old bridge in the way when they built the original span.

[cpzilliacus]

N.Y. Times: In California, Bolts May Hold Up a Bridge in More Ways Than One

The plan was to finish construction on the new eastern stretch of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and open it on Labor Day. Then the existing bridge, which partly collapsed in 1989 during the last major earthquake here, would be demolished.

But problems surrounding seismic bolts in the new stretch and lingering questions about others have now presented California with two unattractive options for the most expensive infrastructure project in the state's history. Under the assumption that the next major jolt could occur at any time, should the state delay the opening of the new bridge, which despite its imperfections is said to be more seismically resistant than its 77-year-old predecessor? Or should the opening go as planned, leaving some issues to be resolved later?

State transportation officials must decide by July 10.

"We are pushing for time against when the next earthquake will occur, and that's why there's this urgency about this,"  said Amy Rein Worth, the chairwoman of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, one of the organizations involved in the construction, and the mayor of Orinda, a city in the East Bay. "At the same time, there's a strong feeling from all of us involved that we want to get it right."  

[Mdcastle]

What's the latest on when it will open. I was hoping on being able to drive it on Sept 9 but it's starting to look like it might not be open yet?

[citrus]

What's the latest on when it will open. I was hoping on being able to drive it on Sept 9 but it's starting to look like it might not be open yet?

Last I read, almost definitely not Labor Day as previously announced - probably December or later. More info at http://baybridgeinfo.org/.

[citrus]

What's the latest on when it will open. I was hoping on being able to drive it on Sept 9 but it's starting to look like it might not be open yet?

Last I read, almost definitely not Labor Day as previously announced - probably December or later. More info at http://baybridgeinfo.org/.

And now, officials are saying it might be open on time after all: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Bridge-could-open-on-Labor-Day-4728573.php

[SSOWorld]

hmm - a weekend drive to SF might be possible after all then...

[myosh_tino]

It's official.  The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge will be opening on September 3rd.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/New-east-span-of-Bay-Bridge-to-open-Sept-3-4735622.php

The entire bridge is being closed at 8 PM on Wednesday, August 28th and will reopen on September 3rd at 5 AM, in time for the Tuesday morning commute.  The closure allows construction crews to put the finishing touches on the approaches to the new bridge as well as do last minute striping.

[brad2971]

Speaking of the new bridge, check out the sign pic:

http://baybridgeinfo.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/potd_image/images/x13_10928d0020.JPG.pagespeed.ic.wOpwc4SOJ-.jpg

[myosh_tino]

Speaking of the new bridge, check out the sign pic:

http://baybridgeinfo.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/potd_image/images/x13_10928d0020.JPG.pagespeed.ic.wOpwc4SOJ-.jpg

Nice find!

This is how I expected Caltrans to sign left exits to comply with the new MUTCD.  To be honest, I kind of like that layout versus the stacked method mandated by the 2009 MUTCD.

Edit: I did a quick mockup of the sign in brad2971's post...

[roadfro]

Edit: I did a quick mockup of the sign in brad2971's post...

FYI: Image isn't showing for me...

[KEK Inc.]

Interesting sign gantry for California.