Grand Opening!

The grand opening celebration for this new bridge was held on Saturday, November 8. The bridge opened to traffic the following Tuesday. For more information, visit Crockett's Chamber of Commerce. The new bridge, named the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge, honors ironworker Alfred Zampa, who survived after falling over 200 feet during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936. Read more... Completed Bridge (Enlargement)

Commemorating the new bridge:

Spanning the Strait: Building the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge is a newly published book combining an oral history of ironworker Alfred Zampa along with a photo-documentary of the new Carquinez Suspension Bridge (also known as the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge).

Building Our Bridges Now and Then - a 2004 Calendar - A unique calendar celebrating the golden age transportation on San Francisco Bay. Twelve black & white photographs, courtesy of Caltrans, feature scenes and views taken of the Carquinez and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridges.

June/July 2003 - Finishing touches

Now that the decks have been placed, crews are busy putting the final touches on this amazing new suspension bridge. Painting, welding, and footbridge removal are among the many tasks at hand in preparation for opening this bridge to traffic.

February/March 2003 - Lifting the deck sections into place

To prepare for lifting the 450-to-700 ton sections, the ships position themselves directly underneath the unfinished bridge. Sections are lifted using temporary cable bands attached to the main cable. Wires attached to these temporary cable bands run down to the deck sections, through four secured jacks and into a recoiler (to control excess cable).

The decks are then jacked upwards and attached to the permanent suspenders hanging from the main bridge cable. For sections of the bridge that are not accessible by water, the units are lifted and moved horizontally into place, by means of additional cables and jacks.

:: Click here for photos of the new arrivals

December 2002 - Suspender installation

Steel is arriving at the end of January and installation of the suspenders is ongoing. Crews continue to test the lifting equipment that will be used for the bridge decks.

After the wires of the two main cables were spun in December, the two cables were mechanically compacted. The cable compaction is maintained by thin metal straps, or "cable bands", which crews are currently placing onto the cables. The vertical hangers (suspenders), that will carry the deck elements, will hang from these cable bands.

The first shipment of eight of the total 24 deck elements will soon arrive from Japan. The first ship is due to set sail in the beginning of January, arriving on site about a month later.

Summer 2002- Cable spinning

Cable spinning began in August at Carquinez, where they used the controlled tension method. Learn more about cable spinning in our "spinning spotlight".

See these amazing photos of the footbridge construction. This temporary footbridge runs north-south between the towers and will follow the same trajectory as the future cables. Curious about what's been happening this summer at the Carquinez jobsite? See what we've done this summer in Northern California.