in 1998, it refused to let caltrans onto yerba buena island to finish its engineering work.e? whether the bridge would overshadow the one-time home of admiral chester nimitz, a hero of world war ii. >> ney: we had to come up with a design where we wouldn't cast a shadow down onto that... that particular property. >> pitts: a shadow? what do you mean? >> ney: we had to make sure that the bridge snugged up close enough to the existing one so that we weren't coming over the top of admiral nimitz's house. >> pitts: literally, casting a shadow over the house. >> ney: right. >> pitts: the year-and-a-half delay put caltrans into one of the most expensive eras of construction in recent memory. first, 9/11 happened and, overnight, the cost of insurance and financing skyrocketed. then, a building boom in china drove the prices of steel and concrete to record highs. by the time ground was broken in 2002, the price tag of the new bridge doubled. since construction began, it's doubled again. if something else is going to be faster, simpler to build, why wasn't it just, "yep, that's the w