this was the opening of eastbound and west. that is where we will be next year. then take that section out, build the new bridge and open up to traffic. if you can hold there, paul -- can you hold? it also gives you an idea of what the orientation of the bridge will be when we are ready to open it. it will that sort of tight pinch and there will be a bridge closure associated with an opening of the structure where a lot will have to be done to get it open to traffic. then tonight is going to be first time that we see the construction lighting on the self-anchored suspension bridge. we have loaded some images of what the construction looked like on our sister bridge. this is construction footage

from 2002. that is exactly what those lights looked like back then. here is the bay underneath, the old bridge was open. some still shots. so you can see if you hold there, paul, that could be treasure island. it is able to see what this is going to look like. that is what we are pointing out the first time you will see that look for the new bridge. that is the finished architectural lighting plan. you see the string of pearl lighting on the main cable and lighting standards all the way down the deck. so you are getting a quick and early look at what the final project will be in two years. that is the presentation. if we can bring the lights back up. we are doing pretty good on

time. we want to go into q&a right now. >> what size earthquake is the bridge designed to withstand? second, how much can a bridge veer and move if there is an earthquake? >> basically the bridge is designed to handle the largest potential ground motion that would happen within a 1,500-year return period. i know you are looking for a richter scale but that is not how it is done. this straddles two of the largest faults in the world so we had to identify what the potential motions would be in an earthquake to determine what we would build. ultimately, cal tran came one a new classification to build this bridge and the martinez bridge. the level of earthquake this bridge is designed to handle would potentially disable both san francisco and national

airport and oakland airport and we would be receiving material to the air force base and charting them down to the martinez bridge has been built for this criteria. so, as tightly as i can get that >> it is a life line. >> that is exactly what this bridge is designed for. >> most bridges are designed not to fall down. this bridge is designed not only to not fall down, but be immediately useable by emergency service vehicles and returning to regular use. >> how many lights are there going to be? >> i don't know for sure. there are 114 different strands , spender cables. so it will be somewhere in that magnitude as a string of pearls, but i don't have that

number. >> what about construction lighting? >> i don't have that number on construction lighting, but in that ballpark. [inaudible question] >> well, it has to do with temperature. as we pull these steel sections across. with the way that the sun shines down on the strand, part of it is in the sun and part in the shadow. it actually lengthens the strand. you can't take a good measurement of how long the strand is. we have the workers to that at night. the final tensioning and surveying happens when there is a uniform temperature around the steel. it has to happen. [inaudible question] >> basically you have to measure the bridge at night because the sun strikes the cable and heats up only part of it, and you dope get an accurate reading.

>> you mentioned the cable is holding the sections together somehow? >> the cable is anchored down into the eastern side. it comes up and laps around the western side, and the entire cable system, the suspenders that come off of it, they are in tension. there are 28 different deck segments. they are in what is called compression. those two forces are balancing each other out on this bridge, and the weight is transmitting down the towers. >> holding itself up. >> a traditional suspension bridge, the cable anchors into the ground. this connects into the deck and holds itself up. >> so that time you would

describe as a normal person? >> that is a basic description. self-anchored, what does that mean? >> it is a new type of design. there are 30-40 of them around the world. this is going to be the largest one. basically you use a self-anchored pension when i don't have an easy opportunity to anchor things into the ground. the western bay suspension bridge is actually two suspension bridges anchored together. it has more concrete in it than the empire state building in new york. >> wasn't this done for aesthetic purposes because they wanted to have something making

a bold statement? >> one of the early proposals was building a sky way all the way out. aesthetics is extremely important on the bridge. the first and foremost thing that we did -- the reason for this bridge and project is to deliver a life line project to help this region and state when that earthquake comes at some point in the future. >> when the cable run starts, how long will it take to make the cable and how long will the cable run actually run? >> it will continue until all of the strands are placed. what is also different about the construction process is on a typical suspension bridge, you work on half, and then you shift so that there is only one cable. the entire catwalk system is

always in play. there is an opportunity to get out there and see this. but it will continue around the clock to some extent, and that is primarily because the day you pull the strands, and then the night work happens where you are tensioning the strabbeds where they need to be. >> are there anymore safety measures being put in place for drivers on the new span to not get distracted by the new lighting? >> well, this is the first one. basically we are coming out and saying that this work is happening. we have actually been doing that all the way along. as we started to lift power segment, when we felt like we might be affecting the visuals on the bridge, we put information out there because the bridge is so large, there is no effective way to do that. so letting people know is a big part of our safety.

this is a first attempt at that. >> when do the construction workers actually begin work on the cable? >> it has already started really because they are placing the catwalk system and the hardware. the actual work is january of 2012. >> so we won't see work there for a while? >> it is starting now. what they have to do is put that hardware up there. they are going to build a ski lift on top of the caught walk. they will have big forkts that -- forks that will hold the strands all the way across. that is why we don't begin strand work until next year. the strands came from china. >> you are going to have a walkway so people can walk-on to treasure island. is that part of the plans?

>> off the final bridge? >> yes. >> there is a pedestrian path. >> any possibility of extending that to san francisco? >> the metropolitan transportation committee is doing a study on that very possibility right now. >> so there is a possibility? >> there is a possibility. [inaudible question] >> no, there is not going to be public access to the top of the tower. this is a very unique opportunity we are doing today. >> on the next part, the owning of the web detour, how will that happen? will there be some period of hours or a day where you cannot go on the bridge? >> well, that actually is going to be big news. we are telling you right now we are going to be closing the web portion of the bridge early next year. >> for how long? >> we are still working on that. we are going to have to come

back to you with a specific presentation on exactly what is happening there. it is probably going to be a couple of days. we are going to be restriping that whole approach coming out of the toll plaza there. we will come back witt more information, but probably a couple of -- with more information, but probably a couple of days with the web lanes closed. it is the way we usually with -- usually work with the bay bridge. >> any chance on finding a holiday? >> fingers are crossed. the things that have to happen is we have to be ready from a construction standpoint to do the work, and we also have the weather to work. >> but it might be possibly up to a couple of days for the web -- for the westbound portion? >> you mentioned that the cable

strands were made in china. what else is made in china that is going into this bridge and how the work over there went? >> there are a number of countries and states that participated in fabricating elements of the bridge. as far as the suspension is concerned, the deck sections were fabricated in shanghai, championship, as well as the tower sections. and fujon cable, different company, fabricated the strands for the main cable. the saddles that these sit in, the deviation saddles you saw at the end and on the eastern end, were fabricated in japan at japan steel works. the saddles for each one of these 114 different spender cables were fabricated in the u.k. at good win steel.

if you look at the entire eastern span, we have most of the piles and the foundations, these massive footing boxes that the bridge sits in come from exotic places like vallejo, california, corpus christi, texas, and up in oregon and washington. so there are a number of different place that is contribute to providing different structural elements. if you are looking at steel in particular, there is more domestic steel in the entire eastern span than any other foreign steel component. if you look at the final bridge, a little over 75% of the steel for the eastern span is fabricated in some u.s. mill. >> is there some updated total for the price tag for this

project? is it still $6 billion for the price tag? >> it is about that, $6.3. the toll bridge oversight committee, which consists, caltrans and others, and they put out reports that says how we are doing financialally. along with that, there is a $900 million contingency. that is all downloadable from the bay bridge site? >> are you shooting for 2013? >> late 2013 is when we expect the prinl to be open. [inaudible question] >> it depends. it is very hard to put a date on when this bridge is going to be completed. but the september-november time frame is what we potentially see if you look in the report. but we are doing everything we can to get the bridge open as soon as possible. if we have the opportunity, we will open it as early as we can.

but 2013 is when we will open. >> is the america's cup something you are taking into consideration? >> well, i think when it opens, it opens. i think safety is the primary concern for the bridge. but we are going to be working very closely with the america's cup. as we mentioned in the presentation today, there will be a full bridge closure associated with the opening of this bridge. so we will be working with the entire region and state when that time comments, and america's cup as well because i know they are expecting a number of folks in the region for those races. so we will be in contact with them. again, seismic safety is the main concern of this project. >> have there been any facilities or serious injuries in the construction? >> so far on the construction project of the eastern bay bridge, we have not had a fatality, safety is a prime concern for all of our contractors. it is something we take very

seriously, and we hope to continue. >> 33 people died from building the old bay bridge. >> very different time. a lot of safety implementations have happened since the 1930's, but yeah, something like that. >> 280,000 vehicles go across the binge on average. it is one of the busiest bridges in the world and in the nation. >> can you tell us, when did construction start on the bridge? and going back to the videos that were shown earlier, are those both the video of the steel coming through under the bridge and the archival footage is downloadable? >> both are downloadable. that is the shipment arriving yes. you can download that. what was the part of the

question? >> when construction began compared to when it is finished in 2013. >> the bay bridge is actually a series of making projects -- of mega projects. our project began in 2000 with -- in 2002 with the trucks of the skyway. what are you looking at? >> that is just for the s.a.s., the self anchored suspension portion of the bridge. that is as long as it is. the entire eastern span is 2.2 miles long, made up of oakland touchdown, a sky way portion and the spans.

then we have the other spans on the western side that were retrofitted thrurg the 1990's and 2000. the entire bridge is eight miles long. >> any idea how much steel that would have for the whole thing? >> did i just say no? it would be a lot. i have no way to quote how many steel is in the suspension. >> how many construction workers will work on it? >> it varies depending on time. it is thousands literally when you look at all of the projects together. at any one time we could have a couple of hundred working at any one location. that is what you see here with the folks at pier 7 and out there. any other questions? >> i didn't quite understand

how you guys measure the factors. >> most folks talk about a richter scale, but that is hard when building a bridge. richter scale merchandise an epicenter. what we did was consider what the potential ground motion would be from the fault lines. projecting that forward, we had to figure out what to build for this bridge. there were things we had to innovate that did not exist, and you about playbook at those on our website. any other general questions? thanks, everybody. >> thank you,r

being here this morning. i have indicated to our new chief and i will be an active participant in comstat. of course, this is only one of many ways that we measure our effectiveness in the community policing in the city. i have been fond of looking at data and making sure we compare ourselves to previous years, look at trends and specific categories, crime to property, homicides, violent crime to

aurora's, and other areas. various local captains of all the stations know that the chief and i, command staff, and police commission, are working together to make sure that we work our best and keep our positive trends going. we are now enjoying, year to date, a 6% improvement over last year on all categories of violent crimes. we are still down in homicides since 1960, continuing a trend that was very strong last year and continues to this year. all of this as a result of the men and women of the police department working closely with command staff, sharing information, and doing all the things that account for best practices. one of the most important thing that the chief and i talked

about, and we knew that we would measure ourselves in the first 100 days, is that we would do and a fine community policing in every possible respect that we could. as you hear this morning, collaboration with other departments, the support that the chief has given to other departments to do their jobs while the police department does theirs, and also, a focus effort on improving the situation while we work with less resources. in these first 100 days, the chief has showed his leadership. i am amazed that he can go out there with his 30 years of experience and ask for officers to come in on the weekends or nights. that is when most of the crime happens. to get a response has he does, getting "volunteers" -- we want to get to a better situation.

the reality i have, i am looking at what is occurring all around the bay area. i know there are bad situations. we need to be focused on our situation, here in san francisco. i am committed to that. we also need to make sure to continue a detailed review, whether it is stolen bikes or property -- that sort of small stuff can lead to bigger things. that is something that mayor willie brown taught me. we allow our communications to get through and people will get through to us. i also want to give my appreciation to the police chief being out there tackling those things, even if there are communities that do not understand what we are doing, trying to get to a level of communication that is

comfortable for everyone, so that we get good information. as i said earlier, working with our public safety adviser and his staff to promote as much prevention as we can. it is not always going to be the police stopping everything. it will be other programs that prevent and change people's lives. that has to work in concert with our police department and all the things they do, but it begins with a good presence. the police chief has shown that through a number of things he has done, making sure there are great communications while we ask our police officers, has with our other public officers, to contribute to the deficit, making sure that our funding gap is closed. this is one of the most difficult years we have had financially, and everyone is stepping up.

even the command staff is looking beyond their own self- interest. this is one of the most selfless organizations we have in the city. congratulations and let us keep on working together. we want to continue that faith that people have, the confidence in the things that we are doing well. thank you. >> i want to thank the mayor again for his support and eco what he was saying about the spirit of cooperation from the police department, other agencies, community. we cannot arrest our way out of crime. if you look at these numbers, violent crime arrests are actually down. partnership with other agencies, the spirit of collegiality, really, an atmosphere of cooperation.

when i asked 60% of officers to move to weekend and night, they were willing to do that. we work out a contract negotiation that would help to close a $12 million budget gap, the corporation was there. everyone understands how serious things are right now with diminishing resources. we have about 4% mustaf than last year but we continue to have crime lows. that is because the her using the force multiplier of goodwill within the city department, police department, and the community. and i cannot say this enough. it is all about the young people in san francisco. if we engage kids, give them positive choices, there is no reason why this cannot become the new normal in san francisco where we are just a safer city. again, i appreciate the mayor's

support, going forward. >> [inaudible] are we not facing a crisis of a loss of officers? >> i do not think it is lost on anybody. the mayor and i talk about all the time. we have had a 4% decrease in staffing, but staffing is up in other areas. the 35 officers that were not working nights and weekends are now. that is akin to an academy class. more efficient and one of the resources we have will hopefully get us to the point where we are hiring more academy classes as the senior officers retire. that will bring new ideas and greater efficiency and a safer san francisco going forward. >> i would also say, the police

officers to police work. when the chief graduated one of the largest cadet class is in recent history, we are talking about civilians doing the civilian work while the police are out there giving the police work. we are identifying those activities within the police department that should not be done by uniformed officers, and assigning those to the right people. so we are just approaching resources the smartest way we can while we try to get more police academy classis. -- classes. >> you talked about a game can? -- gang camp? [inaudible] >> about three m