Lengthy, costly trail to Bay Bridge's eastern span Bay Bridge on track after years of discord

The construction continues on the eastern section of the Bay Bridge as seen from Treasure Island, in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday August 13, 2013. The construction continues on the eastern section of the Bay Bridge as seen from Treasure Island, in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday August 13, 2013. Photo: Michael Macor, San Francisco Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, San Francisco Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Lengthy, costly trail to Bay Bridge's eastern span 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

One of the Bay Area's longest running stories, a tale of money, political power and amazing feats, with more twists, turns and trouble than a cable television drama, is finally reaching its end, albeit a beautiful yet slightly disappointing and unrewarding conclusion.

The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge is scheduled to open early Sept. 3, almost 24 years after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake snapped a section of the busy bridge, revealing its fragility, and almost 12 years since construction started.

The story began with disaster and death when a car plunged into the gap in the collapsed deck of the bridge, killing the driver. It continued with seemingly endless conflict and controversy over everything from its design to whether it should have a bike path to the shadows it would cast on a building where former Mayor Willie Brown wanted a brew pub to who would pay for it to the manufacture of its steel deck in China.

As it moved into the final stretch and people began bickering over the opening celebration instead of the bridge building, the project smacked into a problem with cracked bolts that threatened not only the opening date but the public's confidence in the new bridge's safety.

"Even in the end, it could never shake that voodoo-like spell that seemed to have been cast on it," said Metropolitan Transportation Commission spokesman Randy Rentschler, who has dealt with the bridge since the early 1990s.

Amazing feats

Despite the drama and delays, contractors accomplished amazing feats - destroying sections of the existing span and replacing it over long weekends on three occasions - and erected a gleaming white bridge that seems to hover over the bay and is punctuated by a 525-foot-tall, rocket-like tower supporting a soaring, web-like suspension span.

The $6.4 billion eastern span of the bridge costs roughly five times its original estimate and took at least seven years longer than expected, depending on when you start counting the delays. Most observers say it's a beautiful bridge with dramatic views, and most engineers agree it makes the Bay Area's busiest bridge much more likely to withstand a powerful earthquake.

"It always has been about public safety, but a lot of people are interested in the aesthetics, the architecture," said Tony Anziano, toll bridge program manager for Caltrans. "It's a special bridge, a beautiful bridge, a safe bridge that is going to be important to the region someday (after a major earthquake). It wasn't easy, but it was worth it."

How and why it became such a drawn-out and costly ordeal is a lengthy tale itself. The delays began after Caltrans repaired the earthquake-fractured span and started studying how best to improve its seismic safety. It took Caltrans officials 7 1/2 years and $1 million in research before they decided to replace the eastern span rather than retrofit it.

Then-Caltrans Director James van Loben Sels announced the decision to build a new bridge in February 1997. He estimated the cost of replacing the span at $1.5 billion and said it could open to traffic within seven years. Retrofitting the bridge would cost $1.3 billion and take five years.

"The safest and most prudent alternative ... is replacement," he said. "The key to success is a swift decision on the type and alignment of the new bridge, the ability to secure the required permits and to complete the necessary environmental reports so construction could begin. We must move ahead quickly on a solution that ensures the motoring public's safety."

Not surprisingly, the Bay Area did not follow the Caltrans director's advice. When Gov. Pete Wilson suggested a long concrete viaduct between the East Bay and Yerba Buena Island, he said the Bay Area could have a fancier span if it paid for the difference and came up with a design within five months. Wilson's viaduct was quickly and roundly pilloried as a freeway on stilts and an unfitting entry to the greater East Bay.

Political power plays

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the region's transportation planning and financing agency, quickly appointed a seven-member design task force that in turn formed a 34-member engineering and design panel of professionals to advise it. The groups blew past their July 1997 deadline, eventually narrowing the choice to two alternatives: a cable-stayed bridge and the self-anchored suspension bridge.

Bickering over the design continued and spread in new directions. Bicyclists called for the bridge to include a bike and pedestrian path, and were successful. But a group of East Bay mayors, including Jerry Brown, Oakland's then mayor-elect, did not prevail in efforts to have an international design competition or to add rail to the span.

Despite the selection, the political complaining continued, and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown began a campaign against building the new span north of the existing bridge, saying it would hurt the city's plans for redevelopment of Yerba Buena and Treasure islands. Among his complaints: The bridge would cast shadows over an old building he considered perfect for a brew pub.

Willie Brown enlisted the Navy, which owned the islands, to help his campaign. The Navy refused to allow Caltrans access to the islands for needed studies. It was later revealed that the mayor was trying behind the scenes to get Caltrans to pay for new on- and off-ramps to Treasure Island. Under pressure, the design panels reconvened to hear San Francisco's demand for a southern alignment.

Meanwhile, Gray Davis, now the governor, told the Bay Area to get on with it and build the bridge. He also fired a shot at the Navy objecting to its recalcitrance. After lobbying visits to the White House from Bay Area officials, the Navy eventually relented and allowed Caltrans to conduct its tests on the island. Finally, after an Army Corps of Engineers study endorsed the northern alignment, the Navy agreed to let Caltrans build its new bridge on a portion of Yerba Buena Island.

Construction challenges

Construction finally started after a January 2002 groundbreaking at Treasure Island.

But, as is common with what the construction industry calls megaprojects, it had to overcome numerous problems, many of which raised questions about the quality of the span's workmanship - and safety. Welds in the foundations of skyway section were questioned and investigated. Fabrication in China of the steel boxes that make up the suspension-span deck was found to have faulty welds that needed to be ripped out and redone. It delayed the project by 15 months.

Other troubles included a cracked eyebar, a piece of the existing bridge, which was discovered during a construction closure in 2009. Caltrans engineers fixed it, adding a day to the closure, but it snapped a little more than a month later, forcing a six-day emergency shutdown that snarled traffic.

That shutdown, over Labor Day weekend, put in place the infamous S-curve, a detour that rerouted traffic to make way for the new bridge to connect to the Yerba Buena Island tunnels. While Caltrans officials had predicted the curves would create a few problems, it slowed traffic, creating weeks of traffic jams and leading to fender benders, skid marks and a fatality in which a truck plunged off the curve.

But the biggest black eye came last spring, as construction of the new east span was seemingly moving smoothly into the final stages and transportation officials began planning a public grand opening including fireworks, footraces, a bike ride, even a flotilla of human-powered watercraft. In March, as contractors were tightening huge bolts attaching seismic safety devices to the bridge deck, the rods cracked.

The surprising discovery of the cracked rods, some as long as 17 feet, led to an intensive investigation into how and why it happened and who was responsible, how the embarrassing problem could be fixed and whether - and when - it would be safe to open the bridge. As the investigation dragged on, transportation officials began to vacillate on the Labor Day opening, which had been set for a year and a half. The private group planning and raising money for the celebration put its efforts on hold, and the sentiment changed from celebratory to concerned.

Mission accomplished

A temporary fix is allowing the bridge to open after Labor Day weekend, and a permanent repair is expected to be done by the end of the year. Bridge officials hope the well-publicized problems won't undermine the public's confidence in the safety of the new bridge. And they don't want it to overshadow the fact that the Bay Area has a seismically safe and spectacular new bridge.

"The Bay Area got what it wanted," said Bart Ney, a project spokesman for most of the project. "During a time when you could live your dreams - the dot-com boom - the idea came up to build a grand signature bridge. It took a lot, but people got their signature bridge."