San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge New East Span

Hawthorne, NJ: The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) is proud to announce that the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge New East Span is the 2015 Outstanding Project Award (OPA) winner.

The award will be presented to representatives of the T.Y. Lin International/ Moffatt & Nichol Joint Venture at the DFI 40th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Oakland, Calif., October 12-15, 2015.

The 2.2 mile San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge New East Span was completed and opened to traffic on September 2, 2013, and carries 300,000 vehicles each day. The East Span is the world’s longest, single‐tower self-anchored suspension span (SAS) and the world’s widest bridge at 259 feet. It is located in a high seismic zone, situated between two major faults capable of producing large earthquakes. Anchoring the SAS tower foundation was accomplished by the T.Y. Lin International/ Moffatt & Nichol Joint Venture using the rock socketing process. The lower, heavily‐reinforced concrete portion of each pile was cast in rock sockets in bedrock. The upper, permanent steel shell was filled with more heavily reinforced concrete and welded to the concrete‐encased steel footing box of the tower foundation at water level. Bay Area geology also varies along the length of the bridge, and presented immense challenges for the design and construction of the foundations.

The OPA was established in 1997 to recognize the superior work of DFI members. The project was selected by a committee based on size, scope and challenges of the project; degree of innovation and ingenuity exercised; and the uniqueness of the solution to the difficulties of the job.