"When completed, the new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will be not only the most complex engineering feat in California history, but also the most expensive, with a cost never subjected to public scrutiny. Although today's price tag stands at $6.3 billion, the figure accounts for only salaries and hard materials-things like concrete and steel and cranes. When all is said and done, the new Bay Bridge will wind up costing tax- and toll-payers more than $12 billion-a figure that leaves even the officials in charge 'staggered.'"
The series looks at the funding behind the bridge, its construction process and the Wall Street investors that stand to benefit from the project.