Year 3

January 1, 2003

The beginning of a new year...the cable spinning process has been completed and the suspender cables are beginning to be hung. You can see this on the following pictures. The cable spinning went smoothly and the bridge project is now slightly ahead of schedule with the bridge expected to be open to traffic in late October or early November. Following the completion of the cable spinning, the cable bundles were compressed with a compaction machine which compressed them into a round shape. They were then tied with metal bands at even intervals along the cables. Eventually, they will be wrapped with one continuous cable. The pictures immediately below were taken on the Vallejo side at the dock of the Golden Bear, the white ship you see to the left of the bridge. This ship is the training vessel for the California Maritime Academy, a California State University which specializes in maritime engineering, navigation, and other ocean sciences. The school is located right there in Vallejo.

Click on the pictures to see them larger.

These pictures were taken from the Crockett side of the bridge. The construction site was idle as workers celebrated New Years Day--and all their hard work, of course.

	The separate project going on at the same time as the bridge construction is the major construction of the bridge off ramp and approach in Crockett. Here, you can see the progress being made there.
Here you can see the support work underneath the bridge approach. Work on both projects has to be carefully coordinated so that workers are safe and don't have tools and equipment dropping on them.
		You can see from these shots that the cables have been completed and are now attached to the anchorages.
	Imagine that the bridge deck is attached to these cables. The deck will be parallel to the deck of the existing bridges in the background. Remember that the truss bridge closest in this picture will be demolished, leaving two very different-looking bridges, one a cantilever design, and one a suspension.

January 25th Update: The suspender cables have been hung and the next big phase of the bridge construction is set to begin: the roadbed or deck is about to be suspended!!! In fact, this morning, the first sections have arrived and crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge. They made the long voyage across the Pacific Ocean beginning on January 4th, when they left the docks in Japan close to the construction site where they were built. The first of the huge 120 by 95 foot sections is slated to be raised into place January 30th. This first piece will be connected to the center of the bridge. Jacks that are hanging from the main cables will be attached to the deck section on the transport ship and a coiler will lift it into place. Workers will then attach it to the suspender cables. The deck will be made up of 24 sections in all, and will come from Japan in 3 shipments. The next boat should arrive in late February and the final one in March--three years after we began our project at the groundbreaking ceremony.

You can view the draft plans for the deck sections by following this link: Draft Plans

January 29, 2003: The deck pieces have arrived from Japan and the huge ship is docked off of the city of Rodeo, waiting to make its way up the San Francisco Bay to the construction site. The ship is carrying 8 sections of the bridge deck as you can see. To get a sense of the size of the ship, to the left of the flagpole, you can make out in the distance the Vallejo Ferry. This ferry carries passengers between Vallejo and San Francisco every day. The trip takes about 55 minutes. Many commuters get to work this way, but many more will cross the new bridge and head into congested traffic.