Removal of 75-year old bridge could take seven years.
The demolition of the eastern portion of the Bay Bridge has something in common with the new span that is replacing it — the project will take longer than originally estimated.
It will cost $244 million and take between five and seven years to remove the 75-year-old span of the Bay Bridge that connects Yerba Buena Island to Oakland, according to new projections.
The original two-year timeline for the demolition was a very preliminary projection, according to Bart Ney, spokesman for Caltrans. The complexity of the plan — notably dismantling the cantilever segment — calls for a time-consuming project.
“It’s basically like taking down a two-mile-long, three-story steel building,” Ney said.
Because the structure of the existing eastern span contains several hazardous materials, notably 75 years of lead paint, the demolished segments cannot just rest on the Bay floor.
It is now expected that demolition will need three phases, with the first part starting in late 2013, when the cantilever superstructure of the eastern span is removed. A contract for that removal will go out to bid this spring and is expected to be approved by summer, so demolition of the cantilever segment can begin “within days” of the new eastern span’s opening date in late 2013, said John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the agency that manages the Bay Bridge.
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