New east span of Bay Bridge to open Sept. 3 The temporary fix for snapped rods means green light for vehicle traffic

This photo taken Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 shows a worker on the new eastern section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco. The opening day for the trouble- and delay-plagued eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is scheduled to be announced by the Toll Bridge Oversight Committee on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) less This photo taken Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 shows a worker on the new eastern section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco. The opening day for the trouble- and delay-plagued eastern span of the ... more Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press Image 1 of / 47 Caption Close New east span of Bay Bridge to open Sept. 3 1 / 47 Back to Gallery

The new east span of the Bay Bridge will open after Labor Day weekend, an oversight committee decided Thursday morning - a decision that will require the bridge to close for five days beginning Aug. 28.

Officials said the bridge would close at 8 p.m. Aug. 28 and reopen at 5 a.m. Sept. 3.

"The old bridge is not safe in case of a major earthquake," said Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "Our interest is moving traffic onto the new span as quickly as possible."

The move came just days after federal officials gave their approval for a temporary plan to shore up the snapped high-strength steel rods that hold seismic stability structures together. Three independent authorities also found that the fix is more than adequate to allow traffic to move onto the new bridge while the permanent retrofit is completed, which is expected to be done by December.

"We see no reason to delay the opening of the bridge to traffic," said Vincent Mammano of the Federal Highway Administration.

Thursday's decision came after an oversight panel made up of the top executives of the Bay Area Toll Authority, Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission spent the past few months flip-flopping on a fix and an opening date for the $6.4 billion span - first saying the repairs would push the opening until December before another panel came up with a quick fix now endorsed by federal officials.

Light traffic days

Scheduling the closure for Labor Day weekend, when traffic is at its lightest, will enable the work to move faster. About 2,500 truck trips will be needed to move paving materials from Pleasanton to the bridge, and the traffic congestion of a nonholiday week would slow everything.

"There would be a lot of conflicts whenever the work was done," Heminger said. But because the original planning was for a holiday closure and reopening, "it's not like we're going to start tomorrow with two weeks of work to get the planning done."

The work itself will take place at both ends of the new span, as crews work to connect it with the existing roadway. But while the work is time-consuming, it's not especially complicated, which makes it more likely that the crews can meet that early Tuesday morning deadline.

"It's pretty pedestrian work, compared to the other technical work we've done," said Andrew Fremier, deputy director of the toll authority. "It's concrete and asphalt."

Getting the word out

Within an hour of the authority's decision, messages were already up on Caltrans' freeway sign boards, warning of the upcoming bridge closure.

The harder part, Heminger admitted, will be convincing the driving public that the temporary repair will make the bridge safe.

While the experts said Thursday that the temporary fix would provide as much or more of a safety margin for the bridge in the event of a huge earthquake than the permanent retrofit, the main concern should be the existing span.

The 1989 Loma Prieta quake pushed the Bay Bridge well beyond its original construction parameters, said Brian Maroney, a Caltrans engineer.

The new bridge is designed to withstand the largest earthquakes within a 1,500-year period, far beyond the capabilities of the existing span, he said.

"Frankly, 80 years ago, the concept of seismic design was lacking," Maroney said. "It's a risk to keep people on the old bridge."

Still work to be done

Although cars are expected to be rolling over the new bridge by Sept. 3, plenty of work remains to be done. Caltrans has put a priority on the structural work needed to make the span ready for traffic, but will still be finishing some of the detail work.

None of that work, however, is expected to impede traffic. The retrofit work, for example, will all be done under the bridge deck, with workers reaching the area from the water.

The bicycle and pedestrian path also is a work in progress. While a temporary trestle will be installed to allow walkers and cyclists access to the bridge as soon as it is opened, it will be more than two years before they will be able to reach Yerba Buena Island.

Build one, destroy one

"Until the upper deck is removed, we can't do the (permanent) bike path," Fremier said of the old bridge.

Demolition of the existing bridge will take years, although the work will begin in a hurry.

"Our goal is to start cutting concrete that weekend," Maroney said.

One casualty of the bridge-opening decision was the plan for a daylong celebration that could let people walk on the car-free span.

Even though the plans for the party were approved last November and up to $5.6 million in toll revenue was earmarked for the event, the change to a September opening date left no time to plan and put on a major public celebration, transit officials said.

Instead, a chain will be cut with a torch to officially open the bridge, with a larger public event sometime in the future.