Bridge removal is already six months adrift.
It’s only just begun, and the $239 million takedown of the old Bay Bridge eastern span has already fallen six months behind schedule – prompting officials to reopen negotiations with the contractor to try to speed things up.
“We are now looking at the summer of 2015,” said bridge project spokesman Andrew Gordon.
The delay is expected to increase the cost of demolishing the old bridge. Well-placed sources say the price tag for toll-payers could come in at an additional $5 million, at least.
State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, whose Transportation Committee has been investigating cost overruns on the new span, said that “given everything we have been finding out about how this project has been managed, it is totally unacceptable.”
Caltrans and Bay Area Toll Authority officials gave the green light to renegotiate the takedown contract after conferring on a conference call Monday evening.
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