FACTS AT A GLANCE

LOCATION: Interstate 80, between San Francisco and Alameda counties

STRUCTURE: Suspension, tunnel, cantilever and truss

LENGTH: 8.4 miles (including approaches and toll plaza)

VERTICAL CLEARANCE: 220 feet

CHANNEL SPAN: 1,400 feet

OPENED: November 1936

COST: $77 million (including the Transbay Transit Terminal)

AUTO TOLL: Varies (see below)

Weekday Peak Autos: $6.00
Weekday Peak Carpools: $2.50
Weekday Non-Peak Autos: $4.00
Weekends: $5.00

COLLECTION: One way, westbound, in Oakland

TRAFFIC LANES: Five lanes in each direction

FY 2010-11 TOTAL TOLL-PAID VEHICLES: 43,281,525

FY 2010-11 TOTAL TOLLS COLLECTED: $216,489,440

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is the region's workhorse bridge, carrying more than a third of the traffic of all of the state-owned bridges combined.

It is made up of two bridge segments: a cantilever portion between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island, and a suspension span from the island to San Francisco. Connecting the two is the largest diameter bore tunnel in the world.

Seismic retrofit of the western span of the bridge was completed in 2004. The eastern span, damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and subsequently repaired, will be replaced rather than simply strengthened.

The design of the new east span — selected by the Bay Area Toll Authority in 1998 — features a single-tower, self-anchored suspension bridge for the segment of the bridge that crosses the shipping channel, and a skyway structure over the shallower waters close to the Oakland shore. Construction of the skyway portion of the bridge was completed in 2007. The new East Span is scheduled to open to traffic in 2013.

The new East Span of the Bay Bridge is scheduled for completion in 2013.

See also:

• www.baybridgeinfo.org
• MTC's Bay Bridge page
• Caltrans' Bay Bridge page
• Seismic Retrofit Program