CONTENTIOUS BAY SPAN APPROVED

Despite protests by seven Bay Area mayors, an Oakland-based regional commission June 24, 1998, approved controversial design plans for replacement of the seismically rickety half of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Contractors are now angling for a piece of the estimated $1.5-billion project, which involves replacement of a 2.2-mi (3.5-km) stretch of Interstate 80 where a 50-ft (15-m) section of the upper bridge deck dropped during an earthquake in 1989. Among the technical challenges contractors must ponder is how to hammer 8-ft-dia (2.4-m) tubular steel piles 300 ft (91 m) through mud and clay into dense sand. In mid-bay near Yerba Buena Island, the route will rise up to what would be the world's largest self-anchored single-tower suspension bridge. Anchored in the 0.35-mi (0.56-km) twin bridge decks, the cables will drape from a 530-ft-high (162-m) tower founded on abruptly sloping rock. Critics say the engineers short-changed the viaduct design; others like what one adviser describes as "a simple and elegant line of white."

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/08919526
• Corporate Authors:

  McGraw-Hill, Incorporated

  330 West 42nd Street
  New York, NY  United States  10036
• Authors:
  • Rosenbaum, D B
• Publication Date: 1998-7-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures;
• Pagination: p. 15-16
• Serial:
  • ENR
  • Volume: 241
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0891-9526

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge design; Bridges; Earthquakes; Reconstruction; Repairing; Structural design
• Identifier Terms: San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
• Geographic Terms: Oakland (California); San Francisco (California); San Francisco Bay Area
• Old TRIS Terms: Bridge repairs
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls; I61: Equipment and Maintenance Methods;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00753163
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 4 1998 12:00AM