Bike Path Tour of New Bay Bridge East Span

From EBBC:

Join us Tuesday, Sept 3, 6pm at West Oakland BART for a ride out on to the world’s longest bike pier, the new bike path of the East Span-pizza & drinks at Hot Italian afterwards. RSVP on Facebook

The new East Span of the Bay Bridge is getting ready to open over Labor Day Weekend, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission announced Aug 15. And the new bike path will open at the same time. A temporary bike path will provide access thru a construction zone out on to the new bridge. MTC is closing the old bridge starting Aug 28 and expects the new bridge to open to traffic Tuesday morning, Sept 3. Your Bicycle Coalition is ready to check it out-join us for a Day 1 bike tour of the new bridge and its path.

MTC is opening the new bridge sooner because the bridge is plenty safe and much safer than the old bridge, and all retrofit work on the shear bolts can be completed with traffic on the new bridge, as all construction crew access is from the water below. The bike path on the new East Span of the Bay Bridge will stop out on the suspension span, past its tower. The path does not touchdown on the island because the old bridge is in the way, as you may be able to tell from this picture:

MTC expects to complete the pathway touchdown to the island in an additional 2 years-sorry about this delay. We did all we could do to find an alternative and even the best minds of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition were stumped. We will diligently work with MTC and the Bay Area Toll Authority to expedite completion of the touchdown as soon as possible. When this happens in the near future, we will celebrate the completion of the “Alexander Zuckermann Bicycle-Pedestrian Path.”