Crowning Moment Arrives For New Bay Bridge Span
OAKLAND (KCBS) – The signature element of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge was hoisted into place Thursday afternoon. Work on the new "cable saddle," which is the world's largest, started at 5 a.m. and continued through the day.
KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:
"We've lifted heavier things, and we've done more challenging things on this project, but nothing more visible than this steel arch that is passing through the decks on its way to the very top," said Caltrans' Bart Ney. "It's the crowning point of the bridge."
A test run was done with the steel saddle, which weighs about 450 tons.
"This particular part of the bridge was fabricated in Japan, and the grillage that it sits on was fabricated in China, so they had never met before," said Ney. "And although this has all been computer designed in 3D, this is the real world, so a couple of weeks ago in Oakland we test fit these things to make sure that there weren't going to be any problems.
The saddle will eventually carry the bridge's nearly mile long cable over the tower. When completed, the new span will be the world's longest self-anchored suspension span.
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