S.F. Bay Bridge Replacement Project Hits a Snag

ALEX CHADWICK, host:

This is DAY TO DAY from NPR News. I'm Alex Chadwick.

It was more than 15 years ago that Northern California was shocked and rocked by the Loma Prieta earthquake. It knocked down part of the upper deck of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It's been repaired, but ever since the state and the Bay area have been talking about how to rebuild a bridge that could withstand future earthquakes. Shia Levitt reports.

SHIA LEVITT reporting:

Today, a man is jackhammering through the old concrete to make way for the new foundation of the Bay Bridge.

(Soundbite of jackhammering)

LEVITT: Wearing his hard hat and reflective safety vest, Bart Nay of Caltrans stands near one of the bridge's construction sites. He says the prolonged uncertainty over the structure plans made it difficult for construction crews.

Mr. BART NAY (Caltrans): It's safe to say that it's not normal in a construction project to start off thinking you're going to be building one thing and then sort of midway through reconsider. But we had sort of differing circumstances that caused that.

LEVITT: Local agencies in the Bay area and state agencies in Sacramento went back and forth about the project for years. The initial controversy was over funding and design. Locals living near the bridge wanted something aesthetically pleasing that could share the skyline with the prestigious Golden Gate.

Mr. RANDY RENTSCHLER (Metropolitan Transportation Commission): The governor at that time, Governor Wilson, essentially said, `Here, you can have a concrete skyway across the bay, this ugly old bridge on stilts, or you can design your own. And if you do, you just have to pay the difference.'

LEVITT: And so they did, according to Randy Rentschler of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. It's the Bay area transportation agency overseeing the bridge project. The problem was that when they first agreed to design their own bridge, early cost estimates showed the difference would be a minimal amount of money.

Mr. RENTSCHLER: What did happened, of course, is that the cost went up and up and up and up. But by making the choice for a beautiful bridge, what happened in Sacramento is that people thought that, `Oh, you made the choice to pay for it all,' and the Bay area had a lot different view about that. They said, `Look, the cost overruns on the seismic program in many cases have nothing to do with the Bay Bridge at all, let alone the design.'

LEVITT: Skyrocketing costs of steel and other construction materials made up a lot of the cost overruns, according to Rentschler. Disagreements delayed or halted work on different parts of the bridge, and the cost estimates doubled, and then doubled again. Bart Nay of Caltrans.

Mr. NAY: We are about 80 percent complete with the skyway portion of the bridge that connects Oakland to the area where we're going to be placing a self-anchored suspension bridge. And the foundations for the self-anchored suspension bridge have been restarted.

LEVITT: The delays alone cost an estimated $300 million, and the total seismic retrofitting of Northern California's bridges is now projected to cost $8.6 billion, more than quadruple original estimates. The work is going forward on the Bay area's original design. Rentschler says locals are upset that they're taking on an increasingly large financial burden compared to the state.

Mr. RENTSCHLER: It's about 60 percent local money, about 40 percent state money. It didn't start out that way. Originally back in 1997, it was flipped; it was 60 percent state money and 40 percent local money. As the state has stepped away from its long-term responsibility to mobility in this state, local government has been asked to step in and they have.

LEVITT: That infrastructure, including bridges and other state highways, has traditionally been financed by the state. Now local commuters will pay for the bulk of the construction costs via toll increases, expected to hit $4 per car in 2007. But according to Stephen Maller of the state's Transportation Commission, the state still pays for the maintenance of state highways. The problem, he says, is that it just doesn't have enough resources to cover expansion and improvements.

Mr. STEPHEN MALLER (Transportation Commission): There is still this huge need for infrastructure in California because our population has been growing tremendously. And, yes, we need more money to do that.

LEVITT: The taxes that once covered transportation costs have not kept up with inflation. California drivers today pay less than half the gas tax that their parents paid in terms of purchasing power, and the money goes nearly entirely to road maintenance with little, if any, left over for new construction.

State Senator TOM TORLAKSON (Democrat, Concord, California): The state of California, in my opinion, has neglected infrastructure investment for a long, long time.

LEVITT: That's State Senator Tom Torlakson of Concord. He chairs the Senate's Housing and Transportation Committee. He says the state has to earmark new sources of money soon.

Sen. TORLAKSON: The last time the gas tax was raised was one penny back in 1994, so the state of California hasn't had a master plan, hasn't had a way of planning out what its infrastructure needs were or funding them. So that compounds the problem of finishing up the Bay Bridge, whose cost overruns were off 100 percent four years ago, then off 100 percent again two years ago. There was no money.

(Soundbite of jackhammering)

LEVITT: Back on the Bay Bridge, construction workers are on schedule to complete and open the new bridge by 2012. For NPR News, this is Shia Levitt in San Francisco. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.