New Bay Bridge Ready For On-time Opening

Scores of construction workers applied the finishing touches to the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge Monday as bridge officials promised it would open to traffic by 5 a.m. Tuesday - and possibly earlier. All of the major work connecting the new span to the toll plaza and Yerba Buena Island tunnels had been completed by Monday morning but contractors and bridge officials were not yet ready to announce an earlier opening time, he said. Before this spring's discovery of broken bolts threw the opening date of the bridge into question, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and a private group had planned a public celebration that would have brought more than 150,000 people to the bridge for a public walk, bike rides, foot races and fireworks. [...] about 800-900 invited guests will fill a former Caltrans warehouse near the bridge, now cleaned up and dubbed "the Bridge Yard," for a ceremony filled with speeches, video tributes to the new and original eastern spans and the workers who built them, and a few surprises, said John Goodwin, an MTC spokesman. Gov.