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2013-Aug-29, Thursday 13:28Last night, the Bay Bridge closed. For the eastern span, its for the final time.
I came home over it, about 20 mins ahead of the rolling stop.
Everyone was warning me that Wed would be a nightmare of traffic, but the trip over in the morning, I only had about 2 min wait at the metering lights, after breezing through the toll plaza.
I slipped out a bit early from work at 1815, expecting traffic to be a mess.
Again, 101 was eerily vacant until I got close to 7th street, where it was pretty normal for that stretch. Once past the 4th street exit (last SF exit) it was smooth sailing.
I ran an errand in Emeryville and by 8pm, westbound 80 was a parking lot due to the bridge closure.
While everyone else is celebrating the new bridge span, I mourn the old one.
The deck failure in the 1989 quake was actually a matter of an expansion joint opening a bit too far and the deck sliding off the shelf.
Had they doubled the depth of the shelf, the section would not have dropped down.
CalTrans had a simple concrete causeway design they could put up for about a billion over a couple years.
The city of Oakland DEMANDED a "Signature span" (their words!).
So we have paid an extra 7 billion for this piece of public financed art extorted out of us by a one of the more dysfunctional city on the west coast.
Not only is this design FAR more expensive to build (AND MAINTAIN!) and the starting delays raised the deficit even more.
The other bridges are subsidizing this disaster too!
I believe the new span is safe despite the screwups (fake welding certs, bad bolts etc)
And the final insult is that Mayor Willy Brown held up the start on the bridge demanding that they build a new one south of the island, despite the lack of stable anchorages there. He wanted it moved because of his proposed real estate deal.
And now some dickwad wants to NAME the bridge for this creep!
After causing the price to rise due to delays, should exclude Brown from having the named for him.
I wish they had told Oakland that if they didnt like the concrete arch, they could bloody well pay for the artwork themselves.
Did I mention that I hate this phallic symbol they stuck in the bay ?
This morning, I took BART to San Bruno and caught the shuttle to work.
Friday night Im in Hayward unloading kilns and with Lodema Pottery at the Scottish Games in Pleasanton on the weekend.
It will be odd without either niece this year, with Bonnie already at Humboldt & Ali at UW Pulman.
I came home over it, about 20 mins ahead of the rolling stop.
Everyone was warning me that Wed would be a nightmare of traffic, but the trip over in the morning, I only had about 2 min wait at the metering lights, after breezing through the toll plaza.
I slipped out a bit early from work at 1815, expecting traffic to be a mess.
Again, 101 was eerily vacant until I got close to 7th street, where it was pretty normal for that stretch. Once past the 4th street exit (last SF exit) it was smooth sailing.
I ran an errand in Emeryville and by 8pm, westbound 80 was a parking lot due to the bridge closure.
While everyone else is celebrating the new bridge span, I mourn the old one.
The deck failure in the 1989 quake was actually a matter of an expansion joint opening a bit too far and the deck sliding off the shelf.
Had they doubled the depth of the shelf, the section would not have dropped down.
CalTrans had a simple concrete causeway design they could put up for about a billion over a couple years.
The city of Oakland DEMANDED a "Signature span" (their words!).
So we have paid an extra 7 billion for this piece of public financed art extorted out of us by a one of the more dysfunctional city on the west coast.
Not only is this design FAR more expensive to build (AND MAINTAIN!) and the starting delays raised the deficit even more.
The other bridges are subsidizing this disaster too!
I believe the new span is safe despite the screwups (fake welding certs, bad bolts etc)
And the final insult is that Mayor Willy Brown held up the start on the bridge demanding that they build a new one south of the island, despite the lack of stable anchorages there. He wanted it moved because of his proposed real estate deal.
And now some dickwad wants to NAME the bridge for this creep!
After causing the price to rise due to delays, should exclude Brown from having the named for him.
I wish they had told Oakland that if they didnt like the concrete arch, they could bloody well pay for the artwork themselves.
Did I mention that I hate this phallic symbol they stuck in the bay ?
This morning, I took BART to San Bruno and caught the shuttle to work.
Friday night Im in Hayward unloading kilns and with Lodema Pottery at the Scottish Games in Pleasanton on the weekend.
It will be odd without either niece this year, with Bonnie already at Humboldt & Ali at UW Pulman.
