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Connections 2004: Local 853 "heavily"
involved in Bay Bridge concrete project
Spring 2004
The members of Local 853 in the San Francisco Bay Area
often have the opportunity to exhibit their driving
skills on the heavily congested highways. But actually
having tens of thousands of people witness their work
in making history is a bit different from an ordinary
day’s work.
On the weekends of January 10-11 and Jan. 31-Feb.1,
Local 853 members transported nearly 12,000 cubic yards
of concrete over, across and underneath the existing
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The concrete was then
placed in footings on Yerba Buena Island for the replacement
span of the eastern section of the Bay Bridge. Originally
built during the 1930s, the bridge failed during the
Loma Prieta earthquake in October 1989 and is finally
being replaced. The new eastern span of the bridge is
scheduled to open in 2007.
“This is the West Coast version of Boston’s
‘Big Dig,’” says Rome Aloise, Secretary-Treasurer
of Local 853. “Our members who work at RMC Pacific
Materials showed their expertise and professionalism
during the two continuous 30- plus hour pours. They
have every reason to be proud of their part in making
history.”
Completing these large pours presented some unusual
challenges such as getting 5,000 yards of concrete through
rush hour and weekend traffic and set up to pour at
the same time on all kinds of terrain. According to
Local 853 Vice President and Director of Construction
Phil Tarantino, “All of the work was done with
the existing bridge open and traffic goingback and forth
without a single accident. With the heavy traffic in
the area, hauling more than 1,100 loads of concrete
without any traffic accidents is an accomplishment.
Coping with those conditions is something our members
do everyday.”
“It’s a unique process,” says Local
853 Business Agent Bo Morgan. “They had to put
two huge blocks of ice into the mixer truck, then dump
the concrete on top of it,” “Then they inject
liquid nitrogen to cool the concrete down to a constant
temperature below 50 degrees,” he explained.
Giant cranes now straddle the recently constructed
“coffer dams”—huge structures built
around the new bridge’s column sites. At high
tide, the cranes hook on to the 1,600-ton steel boxes
that will secure each column’s pilings, lowering
them through the water to the bottom of the bay. During
the pours, which started on Friday nights and continued
into the following Sundays, it was common to see two
trucks backed up to each of six pump trucks placing
concrete into the massive footings.
Visible from the Bridge and the surrounding Eastbay
shoreline, each of the pours went smoothly as shifts
of 50 drivers hauled from plants on either side of the
Bay. Both Tarantino and Morgan, along with Local 853
President John C. Becker, Sr. , Local 78 Vice President/Business
Agent Kenn Hill, Jr., Local 853 Agent Stu Helfer, and
others, made trips out to the site to observe progress
of the job. “Our members worked both day and night,
in marginal weather and in sunshine, on two different
weekends to make this pour happen,” adds Aloise.
“What they accomplished will be around for a long
time. The members can feel good about what they did,
and can tell their children and grandchildren that they
helped build the new Bay Bridge. This gives real meaning
to the saying: ‘Proud to be a Teamster.’”
Click here for more pictures
of the Bay Bridge project.
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