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With the new bridge finished, the question now is how to dismantle the 80-year-old bridge that’s still standing.
In the case of the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which opened in November 1936 and its replacement just re-opened late Monday night, the answer is that it requires “very careful thought and safe thought,” Caltrans chief bridge engineer Brian Maroney said.
Caltrans is now focusing on demolishing the old span, a process that will take about three years and cost about $240 million.
Workers will have to take particular care in dismantling the 1,400-foot-long cantilever section because it’s tight “like a bow and arrow”
and contains “a lot of energy,” Maroney said.
Releasing all that tension and energy has to be done “thoughtfully and carefully,” he said.
Taking reporters on a tour of the old eastern span, Maroney said, “I have very strong feelings
for this old bridge” and admitted he’s more excited about the process of taking it down than he is about the process of building the new span.
“I’m a nerdy engineer,” he explained.
Maroney said the old bridge was state-of-the-art for its time but also was the product of the Depression because money was tight so it doesn’t
have any unnecessary frills.
“It’s an honest structure with a pure design and there no metal that’s unnecessary,” he said.
On the other hand, people “didn’t worry about earthquakes” during the depression and worker safety wasn’t as high a priority then as it is now, Maroney said.
He said more than two dozen workers died while building the original Bay Bridge but no one has been killed during the construction of the new span and Caltrans wants to maintain that record while the old span is being taken down.
“One of our goals is not to have anyone die,” Maroney said.
The old span waas replaced because a piece of its upper deck dropped onto the lower travel lane in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and one person died. The new eastern span is designed to be much safer during earthquakes.
Bay Bridge spokesman Andrew Gordon said the first part of the demolition work will be performed by a joint venture of California Engineering Contractors, Inc. and Silverado Contractors, Inc. at a cost of $93.7 million.
The joint venture will take down the cantilever section, the temporary detour near Yerba Buena Island known as the S-curve and tie-in structures to the east and west sections of the old span, Gordon said.
Contracts for the additional demolition work to take down the road decks and the foundations will be put out for bid later, he said.
By next March people will notice big parts of the old span coming down and most of the steel will be taken down by the end of 2014, Gordon said.
Maroney said “environmental stewardship” is an important component aspect of the demolition effort and the steel on the old span can be recycled.
Maroney also said some of the old bridge pieces will be preserved for historic purposes at the Oakland Museum of California.
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So I understood that the old bridge would be towed out of the bay and used as the foundation for a reef. Does anyone know any details of this plan and if this is true? It would be very cool if a new reef system could be created by the infrastructure that this would provide.
Why not just use a percentage of the costs for the demolition of the old bridge and upgrade it! The new bridge could then take the westbound traffic into S.F. and the old bridge could take the eastbound traffic to Oakland. That would cut the amount of traffic congestion down about 50% on each bridge and extend the life, not to mention cut down on the traffic delays also. It would save the total costs of the demo for an already financially strapped State. The new bridge already has cost 4X what the initial estimate said. The old “historic” bridge would be preserved, traffic congestion would be reduced and the taxpayers would save a great deal of money in the process.
Sorry Mike from Mohr Park, your suggestion is physically impossible. Can’t have both bridges taking traffic at the same time. And the demolition work has already begun. The first 1,000 ft. on the Oakland side, if I recall correctly, is gone.
Three years starting when?
Mike
Your idea would just create a parking lot. If you don’t have a wider tunnel on TI and the other span remains the same, the capacity of the system is limited to the narrowest point. Funny that you actually thought that would work.
Get real folks..
The only way to control the flow of vehicles coming and going to the San Francisco area (including south of San Francisco) and the East Bay Area is to construct a new simple bridge…”THE SOUTHERN CROSSING”.
The new Eastern Span did nothing to improve traffic flow…the only thing it did was cost us billions of dollars to satisfy the ultra-ego’s of our so called leaders. It would a laughable situation if it didn’t cost us an arm and a leg.
Thanks for listening…Julia Pardini from Alamo
Oh…by the way, I wouldn’t take down old faithful just yet..
Wait for the next earthquake and see witch one is standing.
Just my opinion…Julia Pardini
@ “The only way to control the flow of vehicles coming and going to the SF area….”
Have you thought about such newfangled things as car pooling, riding a bike (or broomstick), or working to improve public transportation?
‘….or working to improve public transportation?’ How about removing union labor from the mix? 3 years to destroy an old bridge…really? No doubt they will be working overtime, come in late, and end up over budget. Just another form of welfare.