California Scraps Sole Bid for Signature Span.

This article reports that over the next few months, California faces a fateful choice in rebuilding the massive San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Officials on September 30 rejected the sole $1.4-billion bid for the project's signature component because it came in nearly double the state's estimate and now must decide whether to rebid the contract or scrap design of the bridge's complex centerpiece, a self-anchored suspension span. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the long-awaited decision to pass on the $1.4-billion bid submitted last spring by a joint venture of American Bridge Co., Coraopolis, Pa. Officials also will have to consider whether, and how, a new span design will fit with the bridge's existing $294-million foundations that are more than 50% complete and how to reduce the cost of the single-tower design.