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Next stage of Transbay Tube retrofit set to launch

BART is continuing its work of earthquake safety strengthening of the Transbay Tube, which was not damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake but remains BART’s top Earthquake Safety priority. The Board of Directors today authorized the General Manager to award a contract of $7,735,000 to California Engineering Contractors of Pleasanton to install steel plating inside the 3.6 mile long Transbay Tube. The work will be part of the 10-year Earthquake Safety Program to protect BART’s core system against a major earthquake.

“The safety of our passengers is BART’s number one responsibility and concern,” BART Board President John McPartland said. “Our Earthquake Safety Program retrofit started in the Transbay Tube and we are almost finished. This upcoming work is yet another indication that we take seriously our responsibility to prepare for the inevitability of a major earthquake.”

The contract approved by the Board today requires the contractor to bolt 2.5 inch steel plates on the concrete wall of the Transbay Tube. The work is expected to begin this Spring and be completed about two years later.

BART’s Earthquake Safety Program has been underway since  2001 and significant work to strengthen the Transbay Tube is already complete.

Overall, BART’s Earthquake Safety Program will strengthen not only the Transbay Tube but also 34 stations, 22 miles of elevated track (including 1,918 support columns) and parking structures and other facilities. The program is 85% complete, ahead of schedule and on budget.

Strengthening the Transbay Tube is a major priority of the project. The Transbay Tube, connecting San Francisco to Oakland, carries about half of BART’s 365,000 daily weekday riders and, during the peak transbay commute hours, BART riders equal the number of Bay Bridge drivers -50,000- reducing bridge congestion by half.
 

Earthquake Safety Program

Program to retrofit:

  • 74 miles of track
  • The Transbay Tube
  • 34 stations (11 aerial, 14 subway and nine ground level)

Program authorized in 2001, construction began in 2005 and expected to be completed in 2016; $1.3 billion budget ($980 million from voter approved general obligation bonds).

 More information available at www.bart.gov/earthquake safety