Remaking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
Subtitle: a case of shadowboxing with nature
By: Karen Trapenberg Frick
Edition: First published in paperback 2017.
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9781138209329
Subjects: Bridges; Design and construction
Description: "On 17 October 1989 one of the largest earthquakes to occur in California since the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 struck Northern California. Damage was extensive, none more so than the partial collapse of the San Francisco--Oakland Bay Bridge's eastern span, a vital link used by hundreds of thousands of Californians every day. The bridge was closed for a month for repairs and then reopened to traffic. But what ensued over the next 25 years is the extraordinary story that Karen Trapenberg Frick tells here. It is a cautionary tale to which any governing authority embarking on a megaproject should pay heed. She describes the process by which the bridge was eventually replaced as an exercise in shadowboxing which pitted the combined talents and shortcomings, partnerships and jealousies, ingenuity and obtuseness, generosity and parsimony of the State's and the region's leading elected officials, engineers, architects and other members of the governing elites against a collectively imagined future catastrophe of unknown proportions. In so doing she highlights three key questions: If safety was the reason to replace the bridge, why did it take almost 25 years to do so? How did an original estimate of $$250 million soar to $$6.5 billion by 2014? And why was such a complex design chosen? Her final chapter - part epilogue, part reflection - provides recommendations to improve megaproject delivery and design."--Back cover of work.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages174-185) and index (pages 186-196).
Table of contents: title: Mind over matter; title: Field guide to megaproject interpretation; title: Time in suspension; title: Past as prologue; title: Engineering between the fault lines; title: A race against time; title: Shockwaves by design; title: Ground motions when pedalling for a pathway and train tracks; title: Hurry up and wait and wait; title: Freefalling to vertigo; title: Back to the future : the "Big one" of skyrocketing costs; title: Aftershock : hubris and shadowboxing with nature.