California Senator Mark DeSaulnier Calls For Criminal Investigation Of Bay Bridge's Flawed Construction
SACRAMENTO (KCBS)— State Senator Mark DeSaulnier D- Concord thinks the construction of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge was a fiasco. A recent investigation could result in criminal charges based on what he and many others consider substandard work.
"We know that the bridge was supposed to cost $1.4 billion. It now cost $6.4 billion. We know it was supposed to finish in 2004 and it opened it 2014," said DeSaulnier who chairs the Transportation and Housing Committee.
DeSaulnier said quite a few people who had worked on the bridge have come forward in the Senate Transportation Committee's investigation.
Issues including the bridge's welding, concrete composition and the flawed bolts have all come up with the Senator hoping his investigation will prompt the state's Attorney General or U.S. Attorney to take action.
"Part of the problem for me is that we never heard at the committee, to my satisfaction at least, a plausible explanation as to why we were so far off; why it took so long. And then the most troubling is what is the quality of the work that we get?" he said.
With all the construction flaws, the lawmaker said that he's not sure the bridge's span would stand up to a major earthquake.