Finnoe Design began work on the San Francisco Oakland Bay SAS Bridge in 2007. Our involvement encompassed the entire bridge, from the top of the tower to the pile driving frames, and from the east end to the west end. By completion of the bridge in 2013, we had been contracted to detail over 140 individual temporary steel components and as construction progressed, we were also awarded temporary steel fabrication contracts.

Our first contract was to detail the main erection tower pile driving frame and support beams which consisted of over 800T of heavy plate work. Shortly after completion we were contracted to detail 1700T of the first phase of temporary towers and trusses starting at Yerba Buena Island and extending over the bay toward Oakland.

Shortly after completion of the tower and truss detailing, we detailed the cross beam and tower erection gantry crane. This was a challenging project because this crane had two designed purposes. First it was to serve as a gantry style crane to span the two sides of the bridge and install the cross beams that connect the two sides. After, cross beam installation, the crane was to be re-purposed to be the main tower erection crane. To facilitate this the gantry legs were removed, the main beams shortened, the walkways relocated and the crane was placed on top of the T1 erection tower. Since the two different cranes were designed by different engineering firms, we needed to coordinate the two designs into one combined work package of drawings that would work for both designs. In the end, both designs worked flawlessly and it was a successful project!

Our first detail and fabrication contract on the project was to supply eleven levels of work platforms to access and install the tower struts. All materials were supplied and installed on schedule without any fit problems.