The New San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, with 2047 feet (625m) long span, in San Francisco bay is expected to open in 2013 with an approximate construction cost of $6.4 billion. It’s main feature is a single tower self-anchored suspension bridge with an asymmetrical design.
The bridge is designed for a 150-year life span incorporating new design elements making it capable of withstanding major earthquakes. The bridge’s flexible design will limit damages after a big earthquake to specific members making it easy to repair and operational with the minimum cost and time.
It’s 527 feet tall (160m) tower is made up of four main steel shafts connected with steel plates between them (called shear links) to absorb lateral forces.
The tower is designed to sway up to 5 feet at the top in a major earthquake. At the joints along the span there will be 60 feet long sliding steel tubes (called hinge pipe beams) incorporating lighter steel elements meant to fail in order to spare the rest of the structure.