Archinect - News

A 2,500% budget overrun: the story of the Bay Bridge's dramatic cost inflation from $250M to $6.5B

2015-10-15T15:46:00-04:00

With Frick and her book [Remaking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge] as guide, CityLab tracked bridge expenses over time to get some sense of how the project that Herbert Hoover once called “the greatest bridge yet constructed in the world” became yet another example of a major public works project in which the cost ended outrageously higher than it began—and some ideas for what to do about it.

Zaha Hadid isn't the only one who has suffered from hugely inflated construction estimates: back in 1995, Caltrans estimated that it would only cost $250 million to retrofit the earthquake-damaged Bay Bridge. Eleven years and several construction estimates later, that figure had swollen to $6.5 billion, and some officials feel that it may rise as high as $13 billion after all the interest and financing costs are tallied up.

What's causing the Bay Bridge's steel to corrode so rapidly?

2015-06-15T14:45:00-04:00

This relatively low-tech method is among a battery of tests that materials scientists are using to determine why several anchor rods securing the newest portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the region’s busiest, failed their earthquake inspections. The first alarms sounded in 2013, when seismic tests found 32 faulty rods. They’d been sitting in a large pool of water, corroding.

Previously:

Artists pine for pieces of old Bay Bridge

2014-02-26T14:14:00-05:00

For 76 years, the gray steel eastern span of the Bay Bridge was cursed and reviled but mostly just taken for granted. [...] At least two groups of artists and architects have mounted campaigns to spare some of the steel from the recyclers so that they can transform it into artworks that might include a home, a public gathering space and an Airbnb rental space - with a view of the new Bay Bridge.

Winners of the Bay Bridge House Student Design Competition

2013-10-31T19:58:00-04:00

With a total of 73 entries from 37 schools around the world, the winners have finally been revealed for the Bay Bridge House Student Design Competition. Architecture and design students had to develop a modern, self-sustainable house made from the scraps of the soon-to-be-demolished eastern span of the historic Oakland Bay Bridge in the California Bay Area.

The winners are:

Overall: "Hanging House" by Lee Ka Chun and Ngan Ching Ying (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture)
Board Members winner: "An Invisible Triangle" by Qazi Shamsud Tamzeed (Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology)
Community Vote: "The Bay Bridge House” by Romain Caba (University of Kansas / National superior school of architecture of Paris Val de Seine, France)
Honorable Mention: "Reclaimed Lookout" by Chris Bennett (Harvard GSD)
Honorable Mention: "Pier House" by Kateřina Krupičková and Gabriela Králová (AAAD)

Rethinking The Bay Line

2013-09-27T12:16:00-04:00

This proposal seeks to demonstrate the potential for re-purposing the historic American bridge infrastructure as possible sites for sustainable urban housing and linear parks...an aerial garden, as the cities newest park through which you could walk and wander and enjoy the most spectacular views of the bay

With the recent completion of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the group reTHINK Bay Bridge, comprised of Rael San Fratello Architects (Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello), Frederic Schwartz Architects (Frederic Schwartz) and architect Marc L’Italien have proposed repurposing rather than destroying, the to be abandoned bridge.

h/t @bldgblog

Time-Lapse of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Construction

2013-09-04T13:56:00-04:00

The much anticipated—and wildly criticized—San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge finally opened to the public earlier this week (previously on Archinect).

See 42,000 hours of bridge construction compressed to a compact 4-minute time-lapse video below.

After $6.4 Billion, San Francisco Bridge Remains a Mess

2013-08-19T17:05:00-04:00

The eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was supposed to be the crowning glory of the bridge-builder’s art, gracefully echoing the rolling hills surrounding San Francisco Bay. Yet as the project heads for a Labor Day opening after $6.4 billion and 15 years, the country’s most daringly iconic highway bridge stands as a poster child for those who think major infrastructure projects are wasteful.

Previously: Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail

Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail

2013-05-29T15:37:00-04:00

Crews that built the railing committed what experts called a basic mistake - they welded the bolts in place firmly in their slots rather than leaving a small amount of room to accommodate a natural expansion of the bicycle path that happens in hot weather. As a result, scores of the 1-inch-diameter bolts have been sheared off along the 1.2-mile bike path on the southern side of the span's skyway section.