Bay Area to get suspension span, $4 tolls

Contra Costa Times ^ | 6/23/05 | Andrew LaMar and Mike Adamick

[South40]

besides, BART is more expensive than driving.

Not if you have to pay to park.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Tolls are charged one way, the other way is no charge, so the toll may be thought of as a round trip fare.

[claudiustg]

---Dude...it was 14 years ago and I was there.

What kind of idiot thought puts a mere 14 years on earthquake time?---

It was 1989 and I was there too. I'm the kind of idiot that moved to Montana and forgot about that foul place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bay_Bridge_collapse.jpeg

[oceanview]

so its $4 round trip. a bargain, we pay $9 in NYC.

[Petronski]

I dunno, but I can't believe "it's $9 to cross NY bridges now."

That description sounds like $9 per crossing. Sorry if I'm too pedantic...I was confused.

[Flyer]

We could never build another Hoover Dam. Even if it got past the environmentalists, the cost would be prohibitive.

[Musket]

6.3 billion for a bridge? Are they out of their #*&#%#@ minds?

If they could just figure out a way to make it in China and ship it here. Probably be a lot cheaper that way.

[paulat]

Sorry...my math was off...it was the World Series Game day in 1989...so it was 16 years ago...my bad...

I lived downtown...Bush St....where were you...I was 9 stories up...and man...did that rock 'n roll!!!

[oceanview]

well, most people who cross in one direction - have to go back the other way. the only people making one way trips are those moving out of NY.

[Petronski]

Like I said, my error. Be well, OV.

[BenLurkin]

"Personally, I'd like to see the original suspension span design. The Bay Area is a world class locale and it just doesn't seem right to go on the cheap," Nicola said.

Well Mr. Nicola . .. break out YOUR checkbook and write a check for 6 Bil!

[nygoose]

That is for 1 bridge!

Look what Boston paid for one tunnel!

[claudiustg]

I was at the West Valley school newspaper office in Saratoga. Stuff started falling over and I grabbed my camera at started taking pictures. We had to put out the paper from somebody's house. They wouldn't let us back in the buildings except to retrieve our equipment. Right after I moved to Santa Cruz. It took the downtown ther years to recover.

The Bay Area used to be such a great place to live. Now it's just buried under people and pavement. I miss Big Sur, but that's about it.

[oceanview]

Boston? we all paid for it, and its toll free I believe.

[CurlyDave]

That was almost 20 years ago. They did repairs and upgrades. In fact they were running all over the state doing upgrades to bridges, some really ugly upgrades too. What? Are people afraid to drive on it?

If you look up the old records on how the Bay Bridge was built, you will discover that the whole structure is supported on wooden pilings driven into the mud & muck at the bottom of the bay. Just how many more years do you think we have until that wood rots out completely and the fool thing comes down.

Think about the potential lawsuits against the state--they knew the whole shebang was supported on rotten wood, but refused to make repairs or replace the bridge.

I am amazed that the cost overrun is higher than the original price, but that is what happens when there isn't sufficient graft available from the beginning. Politicians have to keep raising the price until they can skim off enough to satisfy themselves.

[paulat]

I miss Big Sur, but that's about it.

How 'bout a burger at Nepenthe...lordy...brings back memories....

BTW...SCHOOL NEWSPAPER???!!!...make me feel old!!!

[Arthalion]

They did repairs and upgrades

The upgrades on the Bay Bridge mostly involved installing cables to keep the decks from crashing down again, but they did nothing to address the basic instability in the structure. If I remember correctly, one of the pilings on the bridge slid over a foot out of position during the 1989 earthquake, and most of the pilings are no longer solidly connected to the bedrock beneath the bay. If this were ANY other bridge in ANY other city, it would have been labelled unsafe and shut down years ago. It's only kept open because San Francisco would implode without it.

There was an engineer who published some calculations about a decade ago showing how a 6.5 quake, epicentered in a particular part of the Hayward fault, could cause the whole thing to fall over on its side...dumping thousands of cars into the SF bay. There's no real question about whether the bridge is needed, but there are a LOT of questions about why it's costing so much. Couple that with the repeated allegations of bad welds and shoddy workmanship on the new span, and we're getting into Big Dig cluster*** territory with this thing.

I do have to admit that I've never understood why they don't charge tolls BOTH ways on the bridge. Instead of a $4 toll one way, charge $2 each way. A LOT of commercial vehicles drive the bay in a loop every day, using the bridge at no cost.

[claudiustg]

---I am amazed that the cost overrun is higher than the original price, but that is what happens when there isn't sufficient graft available from the beginning.---

I'm not sure but I think 6 billion is more than the annual budget for the state of Montana.

[claudiustg]

---How 'bout a burger at Nepenthe...lordy...brings back memories....

BTW...SCHOOL NEWSPAPER???!!!...make me feel old!!!---

But I spent a few years in the labor market and 13 years in the Army before I got there.

Nepenthe, beautiful! I used to head south of there to Pacific Valley and camp out in the hills up Naciemento Road.

[claudiustg]

---If I remember correctly, one of the pilings on the bridge slid over a foot out of position during the 1989 earthquake, and most of the pilings are no longer solidly connected to the bedrock beneath the bay.---

I didn't know that about the pilings, still, 6 billion!