09/21/2013   English German

  Edition # 103  
San Francisco, 09-21-2013


Figure [1]: The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge looks quite stunning.

Angelika Twenty-four years ago, on October 17th, 1989, to be precise, a 6.9 earthquake rattled San Francisco, and caused severe damage to the Bay Bridge, which connects the cities San Francisco and Oakland. A part of the upper deck slammed down on the lower part, killing one driver while crossing the bridge. Shortly after the quake, it became evident that the bridge wouldn't withstand another blow and would need to be replaced urgently. And this was the beginning of the struggle for the new bridge: Discussed were various building cost and design issues, like should it be a suspension bridge or not, one or two decks again, or with foot and bicycle paths? What made matters worse was that the two cities, San Francisco and Oakland, had to agree on all issues. Both cities were run by big-headed mayors, Willie Brown in San Francisco, and Jerry Brown, now governor of California, then mayor of Oakland. It took forever to build, but finally, after 24 years of construction drama, on September 3rd, 2013, the new bridge was opened to the public.

Only the eastern span is new, which connects Oakland and Yerba Buena Island in the middle of the Bay. The western span, leading drivers over the waters again all the way to San Francisco, remained unchanged. The original bridge span dates back to the 1930ies, and to make sure it will withstand the next earthquake, it was retrofitted with new steel beams by the civil engineers in charge. The construction work on the new eastern span began in January 2002, which runs alongside the old bridge. In 2009 the drama continued: During routine checks, Engineers found cracks in one of the steel beams (Rundbrief 11/2009), which lead to heated discussions about whether the steel parts for the new span, which were manufactured in China, where a cheap product "Made in China". Shortly before the grand opening, however, it was discovered that the steel bolts for earthquake-proofing the bridge were showing cracks as well. Ironically, those weren't "Made in China", but "Made in USA". This lead to another round of discussions about whether the bridge could even be reopened with the defective bolts or if it was prudent to wait and replace them.

The consensus was, after all, that it would be more dangerous to drive over the old bridge during an earth quake, than over the new bridge with its defective bolts, even though repairing them would take months. As you can see, the project wasn't exactly inspiring confidence. What I found quite sad personally, was that because of this glitch, the grand opening celebrations, which had been planned for months in advance, were canceled entirely.

Figure [2]: Angelika on the new Bay Bridge footpath. The new bridge is on the left, the remains of the old one on the right.

What was still missing at this point was connecting the old western span with the new eastern span. To accomplish this, the entire bridge was closed over the long Labor Day weekend for a total of five days. I found it quite miraculous that this shutdown didn't wreak total havoc on Bay Area traffic. After all, about 240,000 cars are crossing the bridge on a regular day.

Starting Wednesday, August 28th, 8 p.m., no vehicle was allowed on the bridge anymore, in either direction. Since I had been working in the East Bay on this legendary Wednesday, I crossed the old bridge around 6 p.m. for the last time. I have to admit, I got somewhat sentimental at the time. While I was zooming over the bridge, heavy construction vehicles were waiting at the curb. After five days of closure, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, the wait was over and police let the first driver onto the eastern span. Later that day, I also crossed, and the new bridge pillars were sparkling in the sun.

Figure [3]: The Bay Trail onto the new Bay Bridge starts across from the Ikea store in Emeryville.

But the kicker is that now pedestriants and bicyclists have access to the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge. There's a new foot and bike path. Naturally, Michael and I had to check it out last weekend. The hike is quite strenuous, since the path stretches about 2 miles before it even reaches the bridge. All the way to the midpoint and back, we hiked more than eight miles that day. The path starts right across from the Ikea store in Emeryville, and leads through rather bleak industrial areas and over highway bridges onto the Bay Bridge. The parking lot guard apparently doesn't want you to park on Ikea premises if you intend to hike, but I claim that it's a killer opportunity for Ikea, and as a matter fact, after we were done hiking, we went into the store and bought some things, following the Ikea mantra: Well, we're here already, why not ... For what it's worth, there's another trail entrance at Maritime Street.

On the hike, we enjoyed great views on the Bay, San Francisco and the old bridge, which is about to be disassembled over the coming years. We were surprised to see so many people walking the trail: Parents pushing strollers, kids on scooters, bicycle riders, runners and walkers. At this time, the trail ends at Yerba Buena Island. That's why the locals nick-named it "the pier". The old bridge needs to go away before the foot and bike path can connect to Yerba Buena Island. But even then, the trail won't go all the way to San Francisco, but there's already a lobby for that.

The trail exists mainly because of the accomplishments of a dedicated individual: Alex Zuckermann of the East Bay Bike Coalition kept pushing for a bike-accessible Bay Bridge in political meetings for a large part of his life. Sadly, he died in 2007 at age 86 and didn't get to ride the new trail on his bike. But the foot and bike path is named after him and I bet he'd be thrilled to see how popular it is already.

RSS Feed
Mailing Liste
Impressum
Mike Schilli Monologues


Get announcements for new editions

New editions of this publication appear in somewhat random intervals. To receive a brief note when they're available in your mailbox (about once every two months on average), you can register your email on the 'usarundbrief' Google Groups list.

Your email address



All Editions:
2024 153 154 155
2023 148 149 150 151 152
2022 143 144 145 146 147
2021 138 139 140 141 142
2020 133 134 135 136 137
2019 129 130 131 132
2018 125 126 127 128
2017 120 121 122 123 124
2016 115 116 117 118 119
2015 111 112 113 114
2014 106 107 108 109 110
2013 101 102 103 104 105
2012 96 97 98 99 100
2011 91 92 93 94 95
2010 85 86 87 88 89 90
2009 79 80 81 82 83 84
2008 73 74 75 76 77 78
2007 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
2006 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
2005 54 55 56 57 58
2004 49 50 51 52 53
2003 43 44 45 46 47 48
2002 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
2001 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
2000 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
1999 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
1998 7 8 9 10 11 12
1997 1 2 3 4 5 6
1996 0

 

Send us a comment
We'd like to hear from you, please send us feedback if you want to comment on the content or have suggestions for future topics.

Simply write your your message into the text box below. If you'd like a response from us, please also leave your email. If you want to stay anonymous, simply put 'anonymous' into the email field. This way we'll get the message, but we have no way to respond to you.

Your email address


Message

 
Contact the authors
Latest update: 11-May-2017