SF-Oakland Bay Bridge opens

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? There was little fanfare, but the gleaming white and newly built $6.4-billion eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reopened to the public as vehicles began crossing it after more than a decade of construction delays.

 

The new section of bridge has been under construction for almost a decade and follows years of political bickering, engineering challenges and cost overruns.

Part old and part new, part permanent and part temporary, the hybridized bridge opened late Monday night in time for Tuesday's morning commute. The opening followed a five-day closure for the entire bridge.

Drivers began lining up their cars hours earlier in an attempt to be among the first on the new span, and CHP officers led a line of vehicles across at about 10:15 p.m. several hours before the estimated opening time and the expected commuter crunch of the beginning of the work week on Tuesday.

The new span replaces a structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It is designed to withstand the strongest earthquake estimated by seismologists to occur at the site over a 1,500-year period.

"Despite the journey's length, it has been completed before the arrival of our next big earthquake," said Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "And thank goodness for that."

The bridge's pedestrian and bike sections were set to open later Tuesday.

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