Free Republic

"Who is responsible for the Bay Bridge?" I asked California Gov. Jerry Brown at a San Francisco Chronicle editorial board meeting in May. Before Brown's 2010 election victory, which made him the boss of all Caltrans, Brown was the mayor of Oakland whose political posturing helped delay the retrofit of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, made necessary after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake knocked down a chunk of the span. It took 24 years and $5 billion more than the original budget for the state to complete the $6.4 billion span. Before the new span even opened, the...

Motorists continued to ignore the speed limit approaching the Bay Bridge's S-curve Monday, just hours after a driver lost control of his truck there and fell 200 feet to his death. During the morning commute, a digital billboard at the westbound incline read, "Slow Down. 35 MPH Curve Two Miles Ahead," yet few drivers heeded the warning, perhaps because of distraction or a simple refusal to slow down, said Simon Washington, director of the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at UC Berkeley. Washington, an expert in traffic safety who will analyze the stretch for Caltrans in the coming days,...

After a six-month standoff between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bay Area legislators over what to do about the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, the two sides are on the verge of reaching a deal, well-placed sources tell us. In a nutshell: Bay Area lawmakers would keep the design they want -- the "signature" suspension span featuring a single, spire-like tower just east of Yerba Buena Island. But it would come at a cost. Drivers on all the state-owned bridges in the Bay Area -- that's every one but the Golden Gate -- can expect to pay an extra...