Bay Bridge to Reopen Ahead of Schedule

OAKLAND, CA — The Labor Day Weekend closure of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge will end at 6 p.m. this evening, with the span reopening 11 hours ahead of schedule.

The bridge was closed in both directions to allow workers to demolish a 350-ft. section of upper-deck roadway just east of the Yerba Buena Island tunnel and to replace it with a new seismically safe segment that was constructed on an adjacent site and rolled into place early this morning. This segment is the first permanent piece of the new East Span that motorists will drive across.

"We're tremendously proud to be able to open the bridge early," said Caltrans Director Will Kempton, "and tremendously grateful for all the hard work contributed by many hundreds of dedicated workers, not only at Caltrans, but also by our lead contractor, CC Myers, Inc.; the demolition contractor Silverado Construction; the crane operators from Sheedy Drayage; the trucking firms that carted debris from the site; and from our partners at the California Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Toll Authority, the CHP, and public safety agencies in San Francisco and all around the Bay Area."

Bay Area Toll Authority Chair Bill Dodd, who also serves as a Napa County Supervisor and chair of MTC, echoed Kempton's appreciation of teamwork. "Though there were pockets of heavy traffic, we avoided regional gridlock this weekend, thanks to the responsive of Bay Area travelers," he said. "Transit picked up a huge share of the load this weekend and special thanks go to our partners at BART, the ferry operators and other Bay Area transit agencies."

Westbound motorists are not likely to notice dramatic changes as they approach the YBI tunnel. The most apparent changes will be at the toll plaza and on the approaches from I-80 and I-580, where motorists will see new overhead message signs, extended FasTrak-only lane striping, and an additional FasTrak-only lane during peak hours. The reconfiguration is part of a series of improvements to the toll plzas at state-owned toll bridges around the Bay Area this summer, designed to improve toll plaza efficiency and increase the use of FasTrak electronic toll collection.

The East Span, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, is part of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Projects and is being entirely rebuilt to bring it up to current seismic safety standards. The project is overseen by the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC), which consists of Caltrans, BATA and the CTC.