Posted on 05/27/2004 8:52:32 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The lone bid for the new Bay Bridge's soaring single-tower suspension span came in more than a billion dollars over the Caltrans' estimate Wednesday.
The news left transportation officials scrambling to figure out how to handle the bank-breaking bid.
"We expected bad news,'' said state Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, "but this is terrible news.''
Only the eastern side of the Bay Bridge is being rebuilt, in two sections. The first section, which begins on the Oakland shore, is made up of the 1.5- mile twin concrete viaducts now under construction. The viaducts will connect to the 1,860-foot single-tower suspension span and Yerba Buena Island.
Just one company -- a joint venture of American Bridge, Nippon Steel Bridge and Fluor Corp. -- bid on the suspension span. It submitted a bid of $1.8 billion using American steel and one of $1.4 billion using foreign steel. Under "Buy America'' rules, Caltrans can use foreign steel on the bridge only if the cost is 25 percent less. The bids' cost differential is about 23 percent.
"We can't afford $1.8 billion,'' said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area agency that shares responsibility for the bridge construction with Caltrans. The original estimate for the suspension span was around $740 million.
If Caltrans were to accept the bid, it would push the estimated cost of constructing the two-section eastern span of the Bay Bridge past $4 billion --
more than three times the original estimates.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Can you say 10 dollar bridge tolls 8-?
I am a bay area resident...
With apprentice carpenter and iron workers workers comp rates at 70% [you heard me right], why am I not surprised?
What the hell is a state that is broke doing even thinking about building a new bridge?
California sucks...
My, my, what a surprise. Well, we'll just have to go to ferry service, it's more fun and way cheaper.
All these politicians will like it a lot less when we have the inevitable 7.2 earthquake on the Hayward fault at commute hour, and a couple thousand people die when the existing span collapses.
AND.........with steel prices through the roof and still rising, this just MAY not be a good time for rebuilding a bridge. Of course, if the bridge tolls had not been squandered and frittered away for all these decades, maybe there WOULD have been enough to finance this. Hindsight......20/20.
A billion here, a billion there....
As someone who has watched the genesis and almost completion of the Big Dig debacle, let me say...a 1 billion dollar over-run is peanuts!
The bridge tolls create revenue which is diverted to other city/county programs.
"Ok, that'll be $740 million for the bridge, and another billion for bolts and screws..."
Who's in charge of this building project -- Mr. Haney??
I bet the environmental restrictions had something to do it. I worked on a bid for the richmons-san rafael bridge reconstruction, and there was some kind of restriction on some part of the bridge the entire year, birds, clams, fish seals all took precedence.
Never mind that Bay Area residents using the bridge have been paying tolls since the 1930's (more than enough money to rebuild the bridge several times), Caltrans spent the money building freeways in Southern California. Now when Northern California needs upgrades the money is somehow unavailable.
The Bay Bridge was damaged in 1989, how much toll money has been collected since the Loma Prieta earthquake? What was the money spent on? Maybe it's time for California to impose tolls on the Southern California freeways to pay for road construction throughout the state.
Sell some advertising and signage rights. Build some "Bay View" Condo's. Put in some sky-box conference rooms. Make a pedestrian walkway with food courts. A 'Top of the Bay' restaraunt with a revolving dinning room.
Lets get creative and sell this puppy!
You're close. The high price tag is due to politicians, not CalTrans.
This is a "Signature Span". Yes, that's what the politicians call it. The design is supposed to mirror that of the other half of the Bay Bride. It is a unique design that has never before been built to this size.
A much simpler cable-stayed design could have been built much cheaper, but the politicians would have none of it.
They also added a bike lane at a cost of about $50M even though the other half doesn't have one.
One bidder, huh?
Oh I hope they don't stop giving away free money to the homeless up there to help pay for the bridge..then they might move elswhere..
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