Bay Bridge Tower Construction Soaring To New Heights
OAKLAND (KCBS) - The fourth segment of the self-anchored suspension tower was scheduled to be added to the Bay Bridge beginning Monday morning. Crews planned to hoist the newest section onto the bridge in an around-the-clock operation.
KCBS' Holly Quan Reports:
The segment would boost the tower to 480 ft., leaving the structure just 45 ft. under its final 525 ft. height. It was not immediately clear how long the work would take.
Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol called on drivers to keep their eyes on the road while the potentially distracting work was going on.
"One concern that we've had all the way along with the erection of this tower is that it's happening right at motorists' viewing levels," acknowledged Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney. "So we're hoping that motorists continue to mind traffic as they're going across the bridge.
Overall, potentially distracting work on the new span was expected to continue for some time.
"There's still a lot of work to go on the overall span," summed up Ney. "We still have to put the cable system in and that's going to take several months to place it. And then there are also connections that we have to do in order to open a bridge over on Yerba Buena Island and also at the Oakland touchdown."
A slight detour was expected to be put into place on the lower deck in May, with lanes pushed south to make room for the new westbound approach.
Along with the new tower, the placing of a long cable used to hold up the span will also begin later this year.
KCBS' Bob Melrose Reports:
Ney said while it may look like two cables are holding everything in place, that's not the case. It's actually one cable.
"That main cable is anchored on the eastern side at the skyway. It goes up to the top of the tower, crosses over and wraps around the backend at Yerba Buena Island," Ney said. "That same cable comes back up over traffic, on top of the tower, and lays down on a saddle that's over 500 feet in the air."
There are 17,000 miles of wire inside that cable and there will be other cables hanging from it to support the roadway.
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