From the San Francisco Chronicle:
New east span of Bay Bridge to open Sept. 3
John Wildermuth
Updated 5:46 pm, Thursday, August 15, 2013
The new section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was lighted on Tuesday, August 11, 2013, as members of the MTA,
Caltrans and the press took a walking tour of the new structure in San Francisco, Calif.
Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
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 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 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. A trio of 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 a fix would push the opening until December before another panel came up with a quick fix now endorsed by federal officials.
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