A series of investigative hearings by the California Senate Transportation Committee are set to begin in November examining the lengthy delays and high costs that plagued construction of the new Bay Bridge.
Original 1998 estimates for the Bay Bridge project, finished earlier this year, put the cost at $1.4 billion over four years. Ultimately the project took 11 years to complete, with the total cost ballooning to $6.4 billion. Senate Transportation Committee Chair Mark DeSaulnier will lead the investigation,
The first hearing will take place Nov. 13, with a number of construction and engineering experts scheduled to testify as well as megaprojects expert and University of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg.
For the second hearing, DeSaulnier plans to focus on lessons learned from the Bay Bridge project, featuring a white paper from a local journalist on the project’s troubled history. Caltrans management of the project will be examined in the third hearing. No date has been set for either future hearing.
