10+ hour, 29+ min ago (741+ words) Preparations are underway to remove obsolete toll booths from the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, setting a course for it to become the first bridge in the Bay Area with open-road tolling. The work to take out the booths, which are on the Richmond side of the westbound upper deck, is set to begin on Dec. 10, according to the California Department of Transportation. Caltrans owns the bridge and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission-Bay Area Toll Authority manages it. "In a nutshell, the shift to ORT is to make both traffic flow and toll collection more efficient," said John Goodwin, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, referring to open-road tolling. "This is expected to increase safety and to reduce emissions." Toll booths on the bridge haven't been used since 2020. The agency stopped cash collection in favor of FasTrak toll tags. The project on the…...

5+ mon, 3+ week ago (255+ words) Maintenance work on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge will close lanes overnight next week, Caltrans said. The work is set for 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday on the westbound upper deck, closer to Contra Costa County. Crews will close lanes No. 2 and No. 3 on the eastbound lower deck each night. Lane No. 2 on the westbound upper deck will be closed from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday. Motorists should expect delays and seek alternative routes, the state agency said. Failing concrete on the upper deck at midspan sent crews scrambling to make emergency repairs this week, setting off an afternoon commute meltdown on Monday. Maintenance crews that morning discovered "unsound, spalling concrete" of the eastbound lower deck near pier No. 25, which is closer to the Marin County end of the span, Caltrans said. Spalling is when the concrete breaks apart. After an initial evaluation, crews…...

10+ mon, 5+ day ago (643+ words) When a government bureaucracy wants to do something that's of dubious popularity, they call it a "pilot project." The odds are great that it will eventually become permanent. That's what we are seeing in the seemingly never-ending saga regarding the upper deck bikeway on the 5.5-mile Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. The just-ended four-year pilot program studied the 2019 conversion of the westbound upper deck's "breakdown" lane into a 24/7 bikeway. The lane was once the site of the water pipeline installed during the 1977 drought. That pipeline has long been gone. For decades, the lane has been used for bridge maintenance and auto pull-offs. In the ensuing years, traffic congestion on the bridge has dramatically increased. So far, it's taken four years to learn the real-world implications of having a bike lane, rather than a breakdown lane, from Contra Costa County to Marin. One…...