Comments on: Building a better Bay Bridge

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:58:00 +0000

I made a (pretty poor-looking, truth be told) video of a boat tour of the new bridge construction, using an old Flip camera (remember those?): https://vimeo.com/48859291

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:54:00 +0000

Yerba Buena Island (part of SF) and Oakland. The western span of the Bay Bridge is already upgraded to be more earthquake-resistant.

By: spejic

spejic — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:17:00 +0000

But it doesn’t need to. There’s a tunnel under the bay for transit.

By: spejic

spejic — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:16:00 +0000

Both. Just not at the same time.

By: me me

me me — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:22:00 +0000

where does the bridge go? to san francisco or oakland?

By: showme

showme — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:09:00 +0000

Reading the New York Daily News makes my brain hurt. Cool bridge, article could have been much better. Thanks for the link, Tarek.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:27:00 +0000

Also, the “estimated cost of $6.4 billion” is the after-the-fact cost; IIRC they were talking about $2B when they first proposed the new design.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:24:00 +0000

Yup. Much of Berkeley and Oakland got settled largely because trains on the Bay Bridge made it practical to live over there and commute into the city.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:22:00 +0000

It also needs to be a ship-proof bridge, given the combinations of fog and carelessness that have led to occasional collisions.

By: L_Mariachi

L_Mariachi — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:32:00 +0000

Here's Leo Villareal's LED installation going up on the other span, should be ready to go pretty soon.

By: Teirhan

Teirhan — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:44:00 +0000

I dunno, people keep telling me this thing’s full of chinese steel, and we can’t trust the chinese to do steel right. Probably filled it with secret back doors so their government can snoop through our bridge!

(I’m just a little sick of the radio and billboard ads I’ve been seeing for the past couple of years…)

By: Jeffrey Baker

Jeffrey Baker — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:42:00 +0000

Throughout its history, eh? That’s nice revisionism on the part of the anti-transit memory hole brigade, but the original bay bridge carried two rail lines on the lower deck. The new bridge is so flimsy it can’t carry any kind of rail.

By: toobigtofail

toobigtofail — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:56:00 +0000

“For a bridge that has been limited to automobiles throughout its history, however, getting halfway on foot or bike is better than nothing.”

I can haz get halfway to work?

By: toobigtofail

toobigtofail — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:50:00 +0000

Yes, but… I think of them as three different points of view from three different characters on the same geography, i.e., one book concentrating on Rydell, one on Chevette… That said, I haven’t tried reading them last to first.

By: mccrum

mccrum — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:47:00 +0000

For more of Tom Paiva’s shots (he’s been lugging an 8×10 view camera camera up there for a while now) in the evenings and at night, you should check out his blog. A lot of great stuff if you’re into night shooting.
http://blog.tompaiva.com/2012/12/12/bay-bridge-fall-2012/

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:39:00 +0000

You’re right. Poor choice of wording. I’ma fix that.

By: John Donohoe

John Donohoe — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:29:00 +0000

“earthquake-proof bridge” sounds a lot like “unsinkable ship”

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:26:00 +0000

I think William Gibson suggests lots of epoxy. And BTW I just read the bridge trilogy again, last to first and I wonder if WG actually wrote the last two books. They contain a lot of stuff rehashed out of Virtual Light and slightly reorganised.

By: thaum

thaum — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:25:00 +0000

It looks a bit boring. I like the look of the current Bay Bridge, kthx.

By: Mark Dow

Mark Dow — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:19:00 +0000

‘Likely to survive a 7.0 quake’ is earthquake-resistant, not earthquake-proof.

By: Tarek Rached

Tarek Rached — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:05:00 +0000

FYI, the official CalTrans site ( http://baybridgeinfo.org ) is shockingly informative, with a bunch of great videos on various aspects of the construction and design.

(I’m not connected to CalTrans aside from my daily commute past the bridge-in-process.)