The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, connecting the East Bay and the North Bay near San Francisco, is 63 years old, but a local elected official is thinking about how to replace it.
Will Houston reports from the San Francisco Bay Area:
What should a new Richmond-San Rafael Bridge look like? Should it only carry cars or should bikes, walkers and even trains be able to cross it?
These are the questions state Assemblyman Marc Levine is posing to Bay Area residents and commuters as part of a new website and social media campaign he launched centered on replacing the 63-year-old bridge.
Levine has created the TheRichmondBridge.com website to collect opinions about the potential replacement for the bridge, justifying the need as thinking long term about the needs of commuters, and saying "nothing lasts forever."
The Bay Area Toll Authority and Caltrans are conducting a study, expected for completion in March 2020, of the future of the bridge. Estimates about the expected price of maintenance for the bridge over the course of the next decade have reached $900 million. A new bridge could cost in the neighborhood of $8.2 billion, according to a recent Caltrans proposal [pdf] to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
FULL STORY: State assemblyman solicits public’s ideas for replacement of 63-year-old Richmond Bridge
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