Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Bridge

There is a bridge in sunny California that has just recently become the world’s most expensive bridge. The bridge is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The bridge is a toll bridge and has five lanes in total and connects San Francisco to Oakland through Yerba Buena Island. The bridge was functional in 1936, approximately half a year before the Golden Gate Bridge opened.


The Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 seriously compromised the safety of one section of the bridge, especially if another earthquake should hit the city. Because different strategies had continuously been discussed about whether to repair or replace that section of the bridge, and where the funding should come from, construction was slow to begin. A decision was made to completely replace the entire section of bridge that had been damaged and that the funding would come from the people who travelled across it. The toll on the bridge has now been raised from three dollars to four dollars. With 280,000 vehicles crossing the bridge every day, this is a major source of funding.

January 2002 saw construction begin on the section of the bridge and it should be completed by 2012. The cost of replacing this section of bridge is approximately 6.3 billion dollars.

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