Temporary Lane Changes at Carquinez Bridge Toll Plaza
OAKLAND, CA — Motorists may experience periodic delays at the Carquinez Bridge toll plaza over the next several weeks as Caltrans and the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) make temporary lane changes in order to install a new automated toll collection and accounting system.
Beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday evening, March 8, the two lanes farthest to the left on the eastbound Interstate 80 approach to the toll plaza will be closed to accommodate system upgrades in toll lanes #1 and #2. The toll plaza is expected to resume normal operations by 5 a.m. on Monday, March 11. Subsequent toll lane closures will involve a single lane at a time and extend for no more than two days each. These closures will advance from left to right beginning with toll lane #3 (from March 11 through March 13) and continuing through toll lane #12 (March 27 through March 29). Work schedules are subject to delay in the event of inclement weather.
Following completion of the equipment installation at the Carquinez Bridge toll plaza, contractors working for BATA, in conjunction with Caltrans staff, will be performing similar work through much of 2013 at the toll plazas of three other state-owned toll bridges: the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, the Dumbarton Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Each of these projects likely will take at least four or five weeks to complete. Workers last month completed the installation of the new toll collection equipment at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza. Similar projects at the Benicia-Martinez Bridge and Antioch Bridge toll plazas were completed in August 2012 and December 2012 respectively.
BATA, which is directed by the same policy board as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), administers toll revenues from the region's state-owned toll bridges. MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Caltrans owns, operates and maintains the state highway system, including seven Bay Area toll bridges.
Contact:
John Goodwin, BATA: (415) 778-5262
Bob Haus, Caltrans: (510) 286-5576