SF-Oakland Bay Bridge Time-Lapse

The new span of the Bay Bridge opened this morning.

Traffic began streaming across the graceful new $6.4 billion east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge well before normal Tuesday commuter time, assured by officials that it would not only withstand any future earthquakes but provide a lifeline for emergency supplies and vehicles in the event of disaster. The new span replaces a structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It is designed to withstand the strongest earthquake estimated by seismologists to occur at the site over a 1,500-year period.

The Bay Lights

This week testing began on a two-year light installation project set to launch on the Bay Bridge on March 5th.

The Bay Lights is the world’s largest light sculpture, 1.8 miles wide and 500 feet high and inspired by the Bay Bridge 75th anniversary. Using 25,000 white individually programmed LED lights, artist Leo Villareal will create complex algorithms and patterns in a dazzling display across the bridge’s west span.

(Tipped by JMG reader Steve)

San Franciscans Trapped! Sort Of!

The Bay Bridge is closed for the next four days as workers connect a new segment as work continues on a portion of the bridge damaged in 1989's Loma Prieta earthquake.

During the closure, a 300-foot-long portion of the original East Span will be cut and moved out. A new double-deck section will be put in place. It will link the bridge with a new half-mile-long detour connecting the East Span with the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel. Traffic will be allowed on this detour until the new Bay Bridge opens. The Northern California bridge will reopen by 5 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8. The $5.7 billion Bay Bridge East Span replacement project is scheduled to be finished in 2013. The work is part of a project to bring the bridge up to current earthquake standards.

Finished in only 24 years? That's MTA speed!