Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/politics-engineering-intersect-over-bay-bridge Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Political wrangling can often get in the way of critical infrastructure improvements Case in point: The rebuilding of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Spencer Michels reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: The intersection of politics and engineering in San Francisco Bay. NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels has our Science Unit report.SPENCER MICHELS, NewsHour correspondent: For years, engineers and politicians have planned and fought over how to fix the earthquake-prone San Francisco Bay Bridge. Now, workers are finally building a new bridge alongside the old one on the Oakland side of the bay. The old bridge will eventually be torn down.Recently, traffic was shut off for five days to replace a section of roadway. It was a milestone in the enormous $6 billion and much-delayed project, a project that casts a spotlight on how gridlock politics impacts not just state budgets, but important infrastructure, as well.The 70-year-old span is just one of 72,000 American bridges awaiting repairs. Two hundred and eighty thousand commuters cross the bridge every day, frustrated at how long it's taking to build a new eastern span.When it was constructed in the 1930s, the Bay Bridge was the most expensive structure ever built by man, costing $77 million. And it was an engineering marvel that took just three years to build. It opened in 1936 to national acclaim. MOVIE NARRATOR: A six-lane double-deck bridge, eight miles long, spanning the largest major navigable body of water ever bridged. SPENCER MICHELS: Fifty-three years later, in 1989, the powerful Loma Prieta earthquake, centered 60 miles away, shook the Bay Area, knocking down houses, starting fires, and dramatically rupturing a part of the Bay Bridge near Oakland, swallowing two cars, killing one motorist, and closing the span to traffic.That came as a shock to officials like Bart Ney, an urban planner and spokesman for the California Department of Transportation, Caltrans.BART NEY, spokesman, Caltrans: We did believe that the structures were robust and would be able to withstand massive earthquakes, and we were wrong about that. SPENCER MICHELS: The collapse caused fears that another quake, a bigger one, could have devastating effects unless major changes were made.Under public pressure, damaged bridges and freeways are often repaired in record time. The Bay Bridge was fully up and running within two months. But a permanent fix can take a little longer. So far, it's been 20 years.During that time, engineers, local and state officials, the press and the public studied the bridge and battled over what to do.