Support system
These steel and concrete support pillars play an important, but temporary part in holding up the detour section of the Bay Bridge, until the new half is opened up in 2013. These sections offer better seismic tolerance--something the new half of the bridge has been designed for.
The section of the existing bridge, which can be seen in the background, will be deconstructed after the detour section is in place. This will make way for the self-anchored suspension span to connect to Yerba Buena Island at an angle that won't interfere with the speed of traffic. In the meantime, this replacement section creates two slight turns that require the speed limit to be dropped from 50 to 40 miles per hour, until the new bridge is operational.
September 5, 2009 4:00 AM PDT
Photo by: Josh Lowensohn/CNET
