LOS ANGELES — After years of delays and cost overruns, the new $6.4 billion eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to the public.
The first drivers crossed the new 2.2 mile span late Monday night, nearly seven hours earlier than the planned 5 a.m. opening on Sept. 3.
The San Francisco-to-Oakland bridge was shut to traffic on Aug. 28 to complete construction on the new eastern stretch.
Seismic retrofit to protect against earthquakes was completed on the western suspension span of the bridge in 2004. The eastern span, damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and subsequently repaired, has been completely replaced rather than strengthened.
The eastern span of the bridge stretches from Yerba Buena Island to Oakland and the western span links downtown San Francisco to the island.
The new span is designed to withstand the strongest temblor estimated by seismologists to occur at the site over a 1,500-year period.
The most recent setback in the bridge's opening came after a March survey found that 32 of more than 2,300 steel rods used to help the eastern span withstand earthquakes were broken. The finding threatened a three-month delay, but instead, the bridge opened around the scheduled Labor Day Weekend timing with a temporary fix for the broken rods.
The permanent repair is expected to be completed in December and will cost somewhere between $5 million and $10 million.
The Bay Area Toll Authority has issued billions of dollars in debt to finance the project.
