SFOBB East Span Seismic Safety Project Accelerated Environmental Process

This paper describes the accelerated environmental processes undertaken for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB) East Span Seismic Safety Project by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The environmental evaluation process is a planning tool, which may take five or more years for complex projects, and detailed engineering is typically performed after receiving environmental approval. Due to the seismic vulnerability of the existing structure, the State accelerated the environmental process. Through careful planning, the State performed environmental evaluations on several alternatives while simultaneously coordinating and partnering with external agencies, performing public outreach, and proceeding with engineering studies and (later) detailed design of one replacement alignment. The State risked that the alternative selected through the environmental process would be the same as that being designed, thereby cutting years from the schedule. These strategies paid off. The alternative selected through the environmental process was a replacement structure on the same alignment as the "risk design." The project is now under construction.