CENTRAL AND EAST COUNTY

By Lisa Vorderbrueggen and Thomas Peele

TREASURE ISLAND- California officially started construction on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge Tuesday, marking the end of a 12-year battle that critics contend put motorists on the seismically vulnerable bridge at risk while politicians quarreled over aesthetics and money.

With the “Old Gray Lady”- the existing span- in the background, several hundred people gathered under the winter sunshine for a ceremony replete with speeches and signing of a piece of construction pipe.

Caltrans will spend at least five years constructing a $2.6 billion single-tower suspension span between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island, the largest project in the agency’s history.

It replaces the 65-year-old bridge, which seismic experts predict will fall down when a major quake strikes nearby faults.

The Contra Costa Times will begin publication Sunday of a three-part investigative series that examines in depth the delays in the project.

Conspicuous in his absence Tuesday was San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr., who opposed the new span’s alignment to the north of the existing bridge, saying it would cripple his city’s development plans on Yerba Buena Island.

In remarks Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Gray Davis declared victory over the delays.

“As governor, I didn’t want to preside over anything that would jeopardize the public as they commuted to and from work,” Davis said. “I felt the existing bridge needed to be repaired and we couldn’t wait another day… Let’s build a bridge.”

Michael Ritchie, division administrator for the federal Highway Administration called it “a Super Bowl moment for Bay Area transportation. It’s a time when teamwork, not individual accomplishment, carried this project down the field to a dramatic touchdown.”

“It’s a great day,” said James Kellogg of Concord, a member of the California Transportation Commission that went toe-to-toe with the Navy in a protracted fight over military-owned land the state needed on Yerba Buena Island to anchor the bridge. “I had my doubts that we’d ever make it. But I’ll be back in five years when we open the bridge.”

Underlying the celebratory mood, though, was a single word: Finally.

It’s been 12 years since Loma Prieta hit the Bay Area. Bolts sheared on the bridge and a piece of the upper deck on the eastern span collapsed, killing one woman.

Contra Costa County Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier, who served on the task force that picked the design and location, was overheard saying, before he penned his name on the pipe, “How do you spell ‘finally?’”

Donald MacDonald, the San Francisco architect who designed the new span, called it a “lifetime achievement.” But he expressed frustration about delays that kept his creation nothing more than a gleaming white model. 

“The delays were unfortunate,” MacDonald said after the ceremony. “It cost the public a lot of money that didn’t need to be spent. There was a lot of political puff.”

As politics subside and construction moves center stage, Caltrans Director Jeff Morales said he will focus on safety and completing the bridge before a major earthquake hits. 

More than 67,000 people will ultimately work on the new span.

Construction of the original Bay Bridge in the 1930s claimed 23 lives.

“We used to say that for every $1 million in construction costs, one life would be lost,” said Dick Zampa, president of the Iron Workers of the State of California. “It’s improved greatly, but we have to always think about safety.”

Caltrans awarded earlier this month the second of four bridge construction contracts to Kiewit/FCI/Manson for the viaduct. The company will have 1,000 days to complete the work.

The state expects to award a third contract for the more difficult, single-tower, self-anchored suspension span next year. Dismantling the old bridge will come last.

Reach Lisa Vorderbrueggen at lvorderbrueggen@cctimes.com.