Caltrans advances plans to remove Old Bay Bridge

Oakland, Calif. — Caltrans engineers asked a Bay Bridge budgetary oversight panel to approve the final three-year demolition plan that includes more implosions like the November controlled blasts that brought down Pier E3, the largest underwater pier from the old Bay Bridge.

Caltrans will detail for the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC) a $140-million plan that involves two pier implosions between October and November of this year, followed by six smaller implosions in 2017, and seven in 2018, pending approval by environmental resource agencies .

The proposed timeline lays out the systematic demolition of the remainder of the now obsolete 1936 Bay bridge, stretching more than a mile.  Engineers say using controlled charges to remove underwater structures saves time, costs less, and impacts the environment less than a traditional mechanical demolition.

In between the implosions, engineers plan to repeat the days-long process that played out last week when a whole section of the old Bay Bridge – a 504-foot-long, 2,500-ton steel truss – was cut loose and lowered onto a pair of waiting barges.

“Last week’s truss lowering was a text-book example of good engineering and safe construction practices,” said Dan McElhinney, Caltrans Chief Deputy District Director for the Bay Area.  “And November’s implosion was a model of environmental stewardship that we would like to replicate as we finish the job of removing the old bridge.”