First East Span Tower Sections Arrive in the Bay Area

Officials from the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) and its partner agencies are celebrating the arrival of the first tower sections for the self-anchored suspension (SAS) span that will be the crowning element of the new Bay Bridge East Span. The shipment slid under the Golden Gate Bridge mid-afternoon today aboard the Zhenhua 18, and arrived at Pier 7 in Oakland after 21 days at sea.

Fabricated at the Zhenhua Heavy Industry Company in Shanghai, the 525-foot tower will help give the bridge its unique design, which calls for a single cable to anchor into one side of the span’s eastern end, drape over the tower, wrap around the west end, and go back over the tower to anchor back into the eastern end.

The SAS tower is actually comprised of four individual legs, each of which is made up of five vertical sections, or lifts. In total, the SAS tower contains 20 different pieces. This first installment contains four pieces that are 155-feet-tall and weigh 1,190 tons each. They will make up the lower level of the tower, beneath the roadways.

Upon their arrival at Pier 7, the tower sections will be inspected to make sure no damage occurred during transportation and transferred to barges for transport in the coming days to the construction site where crews will place them onto the massive concrete foundation awaiting them in the Bay.

Meanwhile, the SAS road decks have been taking shape since February, with 12 deck sections already in place, and more scheduled to arrive from China in the coming weeks.

The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) — along with Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission — is part of Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC), which has been overseeing the seismic retrofit of state-owned toll bridges in the Bay Area, including the Bay Bridge. BATA is also responsible for collecting bridge tolls and funding the retrofits.