...decided to postpone the bid from Jan. 21 to May 28 because “bidders were requesting added time to figure out what they were going to do for a bid package,” McElhinney says.

But others point to other complicating and expensive project factors, including its seismic requirements and location across a fault line, tight tolerances, tough quality demands and other issues.

STEELY Design requires suspension span’s deck to be built first, requiring much falsework. (Photo courtesy of newbaybridge.org)

Caltrans will now take at least 60 days to review the procurement and determine whether the bid should be accepted. If rejected, rebidding is likely, says McElhinney. Caltrans also will discuss financing with MTC and the Federal Highway Administration. “We can do some things to help finance this program, given the constraints we have now,” Rentschler says. “We can’t make it better to the tune of a $1.8-billion bid. That’s too high.” If Caltrans rejects the bid, the advertising period should be considerably shorter than the previous periods, possibly about three months, McElhinney says.

A change of materials or even design is not off the table, project sources say. Designer T.Y. Lin would not comment, but one source says the structure could be “reconfigured” to cut the cost. Because the self-anchored suspension span is specified by state legislation authorizing the bridge, legislative approval would be required if Caltrans switched bridge types. “The best way to complete the bridge is to stick with the bridge type and get to a point where you’re ready to [go],” McElhinney says. “Any additional time added to the schedule is cost added to the structure.” Some speculate that significant redesign could add up to four years to completion.

While Caltrans was warned that the bridge’s “market price” would be close to $1.4 billion, McElhinney denies the agency failed to give sufficient weight to contractors’ concerns. Caltrans was “probably more responsive than we’ve ever been, because this is our number-one-priority seismic-safety project,” he says.