Organized Labor

Yerba Buena Island Connection Should be Complete by Labor Day 2009

Work on the temporary detour structure and permanent transitional roadways of the Bay Bridge at the southeast side of Yerba Buena Island (YBI) is being done by General Contractor CC Myers and subcontractor Danny’s Construction Co., Inc. (DCCI).

About 30 iron workers and operating engineers are employed on the all union job by DCCI, according to Project Manager Matthew Guillotel. He said that four new spans were being built with truss installation and erection of the towers expected to be completed by this fall.

According to Caltrans, "the monumental work that was performed on the West Approach over Labor Day weekend in 2006 served as a 'dry run' for the even more complex work that was performed this past Labor Day weekend near YBI, when a large section of roadway on the bridge's upper deck was removed and a 350-foot-long, seismically upgraded replacement section was rolled into place." That work represented the first in a series of phases to build a 900-foot temporary detour structure and permanent transitional roadways. These new roadways, which are slated for completion around the same time as the new Self-Anchored Suspension (SAS) span to the east of YBI, will connect the western end of the SAS span to the YBI Viaduct, and will segue the side-by-side road decks of the new span to the upper and lower decks of the existing Yerba Buena Island tunnel and the West Span.

"Constructing the permanent transitional structures near Yerba Buena Island can only be accomplished with a major traffic shift south of the island onto a Temporary Bypass Structure, which will route both east and westbound traffic from the exiting East Span around the southern side of the island and connect with the existing YBI Tunnel," said Ney. Traffic will be shifted to the Temporary Bypass Structure in 2009, following the completion of an East Tie-In. This will represent the most complex traffic shift yet on the Bay Bridge, according to Caltrans. The project is 660 meters in length, and 52 meters at its highest point.

Ney said that work on the SAS would be completed in 2012 or 2013, when it is connected to the Skyway that runs parallel to the existing Bay Bridge. Caltrans reported that the Skyway-the 1.2 mile-long elevated viaduct of the new East Span-is structurally complete as of December 2007. All 452 pre-cast concrete segments-the largest of their kind ever cast-have all been placed. The two enormous steel box girders, each weighing 1,700 tons, were lifted last year. They represent the heaviest lifts in California history. The girders will eventually connect to the SAS, which is currently under construction.

A description from the Caltrans website (www.baybridgeinfo.org ) notes that "As an integral part of the new East Span, the Skyway represents the perfect marriage of art and engineering-the wedding of seismic safety design and pure aesthetics. The parallel decks of the Skyway have been designed for earthquake stability-with enormous foundations supporting the concrete segments, and with piles reaching as much as 300 feet below the water's surface to anchor in stable soils." The cost of the East Span is about $5.5 billion. Foundations for the bridge tower and suspension span were completed last month.

Roll out of the new section that connects to YBI should be completed by Labor Day 2009, according to DCCI, although Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney indicated that the roll out may occur in the spring of 2009. He pointed out that CC Myers had completed the YBI viaduct replacement 11 hours ahead of schedule last Labor Day. Although the Bay Bridge project is not 100 percent union, "the trades have delivered in the peak times when we had challenging situations and needed to complete the job on time, " Ney said.