Bay Bridge East Spans Replacement Option Drilling is done in water that is from ten to ninety feet deep.
Probes can test for strength of soil and composition.
The Foundations for a great Bridge To plan for the construction of the new East Spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, investigations must be made of the soil conditions on and beneath the floor of San Francisco Bay. Drilling crews and geotechnical engineers have been gathering data that will provide necessary information for bridge designers and builders. In this work, a pipe is first lowered from barge-mounted drill rig to the top of the bay mud and seated before sampling and testing begins. The probes and samplers are drilled or forced through the bay floor to depths of just a few inches all the way to over three hundred feet. The outer pipe prevents disturbed bay mud from mixing with the bay waters.