we broke ground on this project, or broke water, i don't know what the right phrase is for a bridge, in the year 2000. today is a big step toward completion of the project. i think it's important to mark milestones, especially when a project lasts this long. but the only milestone that really matters, as mayor kwan says, is when we can move traffic from that bridge on to this one. that seismic safety imperative has always been uppermost in our mind. and it continues to be with the reminders that we've seen with recent seismic activity just over the last few weeks. mayor kwan, i want to assure you we are going to open this bridge when you are still mayor. as for mayor lee, i guess we'll find out in a few weeks. we are going to open it as

quickly as possible. we certainly hope by late 2013, or sooner if possible, and let me conclude, if i could, because we'd be introducing brian peterson next, the project manager, that i sure hope now that we've got all the steel in place, we can really put the pedal to the metal. congratulations to all the workers who have gotten us this far and let's get the last stretch done now. thank you. >> before i introduce our last important speaker, i want to close my comments on a safety note and acknowledge other

partners that are here, the california highway patrol. i do know that seward is here for the california highway patrol and i want to extend my appreciation to them. at this time, i would like to introduce our last speaker, the project manager for this gre project. brian peterson. >> good morning, everyone. it is a very exciting day. i appreciate the attendance we have here. it's a great day here. it's a beautiful day. we've got a lot of this evenings ahead of us here. today is one of many great days for the project and american bridge floor marks the erection of a last piece of bridge stack. and the final major piece of the fabricated steel for the

project. today's piece will allow us to start the cable work in the months to come. so you'll see a dynamic change again in the bridge. we are proud of the fabrication that has been provided by dpmc and we thank them for all of their efforts. we're also very fortunate to have an experienced work force here on the project that can accomplish great feats like you see going on behind us. without their skill, without their effort, this wouldn't be possible. milestones like today are only achieved through the spirit of cooperation, communication, and coordination. and for that, american bridge floor appreciates the team work of everybody that is here today and some special ones that couldn't be here as well. finally, i express our gratitude for the support from cal trans,

the california transportation commission, and all of the elected officials that have supported this project, and like steve said, we look forward to continuing the work on this project to drive forward to a possible opening to traffic and seismic safety. the paramount that's left for the joint venture to complete. i thank everybody for attending and i hope you enjoy the day. >> thank you all again for coming out to mark this momentous occasion. now i'm going to turn it over to bart for logistics. >> at this point, that concludes the speaking part of the day. and i know that some of you are going to remain on the deck with us and do your live -- we're going to go ahead and adjourn

the speakers. brian, if you want to go ahead and allow them to take a peek at the segment, it looks like it's moving pretty well, actually. >> good morning, everyone. i'm the executive director of the san francisco tradition nor did. the me take a second to welcome you all warmly to this event. -- transportation authority.

i am glad that we are able to hostess for the third time in a decade. i have the honor of introducing the official welcome to the city, edwin lee, the 43rd mayor of the city and county of san francisco. a former city administrator, former director of public works for san francisco. he was appointed unanimously as the successor mayor in 2011 to fill the remaining year of former mayor gavin newsom's term. as you know, former mayor newsom was sworn in as the lieutenant governor in january to 10 -- 2010. mayor lee is the first asian- american mayor in the city's history. 2010, mayor lee was appointed to a second term by mayor newsom. his appointment at the time was confirmed unanimously by the

board of supervisors. as city administrator, he spearheaded reform that would be reduced the size and cost of government, from reducing the vehicle fleet, to consolidating departments, to saving tax dollars. he implemented the city's move to cleaner vehicles and infrastructure to support electric vehicles. mayor lee also developed and oversaw implementation of his first 10-year capital plan, to guide our capital and infrastructure investment. mayor lee has a long and distinguished career in san francisco. since 1989, has held a number of senior leadership positions. he is a fellow cal graduate. as you probably all know, last tuesday, november 8, the people of san francisco elected edwin

lee in his own right, to serve as mayor of san francisco. let me say, on a personal note, the day before the election, i was having coffee at my favorite cafe in glen park, and lost in my e-mail, whatever i was doing in the moment. all of a sudden, i hear some commotion and see the mayor coming in to shake hands with me. he was doing parts of his campaign stump. it is already a tradition, in a few months that he served as interim mayor, among the department heads, you cannot be incognito in this town, because the mayor will find you. maybe in a cafe or someplace else that you hang out. this mayor likes to be everywhere, likes to know everyone.

that is what the city really needs, somebody who knows the city, knows what the city is all about, what the city wants. has got the kind of discipline, the kind of 7 to 9 scheduled to make it happen. he has already set an example, and we are all looking forward to a hold term of this with him. ladies and gentlemen, it gives me a great pleasure and it is my distinct honor to introduce mayor edwin lee, mayor of san francisco. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. thank you, josé, for that wonderful rendition of our last meeting. i want to welcome all of you here to san francisco, i want to welcome all of you self-help movement folks, local

transportation experts, individual that have dedicated your lives. i want to thank you for occupying san francisco this morning. i know i'll get questions there this afternoon. i wanted to be here this morning to welcome your conference, to know that you have a mayor here at greatly appreciates your self-help movement. we have had hours -- prop k -- and we have had many discussions about those. especially with dpw, how to balance that money to make sure that we are getting everything out of it that we can. we are doing everything we can with the sales tax. i hope you have a chance to visit some of the project that are under way because of prop k. we have wonderful projects, one that i am very proud of in helping our infrastructure will come, not only the increased population we are increasing, -- experiencing, but also the need

to run the state. i noticed here in your conference you have a focus on the future. i first thought, in my relaxed way, after the election was over, -- that is close to one of my favorite movies "fight for the future." it is kind of like that. when it comes to transportation infrastructure, the priorities we have, in our government, and our residents feel about it, it is almost like you feel like there are aliens from another planet trying to stop us from creating a future for our society and community. i know we have some great projects in the state, but i want to thank you for coming to san francisco. with your ideas, the collaboration you have, priorities about making sure that we have sustainable, good

neighborhoods that are built with and through the transportation infrastructure that we are talking about, we are going to have our state really tried to depend on you to recover. i know without making infrastructure investment a priority, our state will not have the ability to recover economically and for the people who want to have good lives and improve the conditions in the state. i want to mention three of our projects. there ones we're very much invested in. the first is our procedural parkway. the second is the trans-based terminal. -- the trans-bay terminal. the third, the third -- [laughter] [applause] of course it is our essentials subway. [laughter]

that is going to be with the help of the department of energy. let me tell you that. [laughter] i wanted to talk about our parkway. we are about to finish next year if the first phase of the project. we will be connecting golden gate bridge with the new safe roadway that connects everybody to many points south. it is wonderful. i have been there at least twice with secretary lahood, jose, and many representatives of our congressional and senatorial bodies. they are seismically retrofitted. it will be even more beautiful. you will see a lot of scenery and around that. we're excited about completing phase one and look forward to

starting phase two. for the trans-bay terminal, one of the most important projects we're building downtown, we have had the program since the bay bridge was built. the trans bay terminal houses different transportation modes. we already have under construction the rebuilding of that terminal as a transportation hub. there will also be a brand new neighborhood of offices where people live and work. there will be a beautiful series of buildings where designing in the most sustainable and environmentally friendly way to make sure we keep our status of as being the greatest city in north america. we anticipate there will be 27,000 permanent jobs created as a result of that terminal.

we are building the north terminal hub for high-speed rail. we're going ahead and building it. we're building it in anticipation that the high-speed rail system will be built in the state because it is the smartest thing for us to do. that is what i am planning the future for. we are the only high-speed rail project already under way in the whole country. we anticipate we can work out an agreement with all of our friends to make sure it accommodates their needs and addresses their fears to minister it is sustainable. we strongly suggest that we are very much a part of and want to electrify caltrans rather than just build something new that will disturb everybody else's neighborhood. we know that our future is

linking the north and south. 1/3 of our airline flights through san francisco airport is the los angeles to san francisco commit. because of the capacity of our airports, we no longer have any capacity to expand, we need to move up on to rail. san francisco can be successful by inviting more infant -- international travel that we are known for. it is vital for our future. it is a great neighborhood being designed and built. you are going to see this being one of the most sustainable projects you will ever see. it is the center of 11 different transportation districts. a project that had been identified as one of the controversial once during the campaign over the last three

months is the subway. it has been supported by our city, every federal official, and the state transportation agencies for two decades. it is the second phase of the first phase that was completed. we're getting linked up with new stations for people going to union square or chinatown, no.- south. all of our new homes and additional residents that will move into the city, over 10,500 new homes are being built in the southern part of the city. that is going to be our new area of living. we have cleared it out. we have done it right. we have used redevelopment

tools to make sure our future has adequate capacity. the central subway is vital for our future. it will be transporting 73,000 passengers a day to add to our over 700,000 transit riders in the city. that is our future. i am glad to share it with you. i know you are talking about and focusing on the future of all of the counties. the san francisco transportation authority and the mayor do support of the work you are doing. i want to praise you for coming here and sharing your ideas. the best ideas are about to come. one of the most serious things we can do is that we have got to move our cities forward. we have got to move our neighborhoods forward. we have to contribute to moving

our state forward. we cannot sit back and watch our infrastructure decay. we have to make sure the right investments are made and that we make those investments. not investing in transportation means we would not have a company like twitter, zynga, a sales force. all those companies are coming here in part because they know we have invested properly in our transportation infrastructure. that is how their work force gets around. that is how they get around the city. welcome to san francisco. thank you. i hope you have great ideas and cooperation. thank you. [applause]

>> hello. welcome to "culturewire." we are here today with bay area artist jody chanel, and we are here to see the plaza where your piece has just been

installed. >> i have been doing large-scale paintings in the galleries and museums, and the idea that in the future, i could do something that would hang out a little bit longer than the duration of the installation the kind of appeal to me. i quickly found out about the san francisco arts commission school and realized there was a pre-qualified school you had to apply to, so i applied to the. >> how long did it take you to develop this work for the plaza? >> this was a fast track project. design development was about a month. >> let's look at the beautiful mural. i have never seen a mural created on asphalt. >> the heat of the asphalt, a new layer of asphalt. then, these wire rope templates

that were fabricated for the line work get laid down and literally stamped into the asphalt, and then everything was hand-painted. >> maybe you could talk about some of the symbolism, maybe starting in the middle and working out. >> [inaudible] the flower of industry. >> it is like a compass. there's an arrow pointing north. >> within the great bear consolation, there are two pointed stars here. they typically lead one to the northstar, otherwise known as polaris. so i thought it has a layer of theme. >> let's talk about some of the other elements in the peace. we are walking along, and there is a weather vane. there's a sweet little bird hanging on the side. what kind of bird is that? >> [inaudible]

the smallest of the gulf species, and it lives around the bay area. >> you want to talk about the types of flour patterns that you send? >> [inaudible] around 1926 or so by the dahlia society. >> what is this bird here? >> that is the california quail. >> coming up here, we had a little blustery theme. what is this area here? >> this is supposed to be the side view, the expense of the golden gate bridge. >> there it is. >> there are really beautiful elements of architecture still around, i would say that it gives that feeling over to the

work. >> what are your hopes for it? >> that in a way it just becomes part of the area. i think it is starting to have that feeling. people utilize it. they sit and, and have their lunch and play on -- they sit and, and have their lunch and play on that -- they sit and come and have their lunch and play on it. just for it to be part of the neighborhood. that is my hope. >> is such a beautiful addition to our public art in san francisco. thank you for joining us. it was nice to meet you. and thank you for telling us about your beautiful mural. thanks for watching "culturewire."