By Peter Lawrence Kane
If you ever wondered why the old Bay Bridge can’t just be blown up like a Vegas hotel, it’s because the span is coated with millions of gallons of lead paint. So instead of a sexy implosion, it’s getting torn down (in reverse order from the way it was built) in three phases over five years.
Another reason is that it’s covered with 800 cormorants, who seem to have realized this giant object with lots of nesting places under it is much quieter than before. As cormorants are protected by law, they can’t be shot, so the Bay Area Toll Authority is doing everything possible to coax them off — and things are growing a little desperate. According to SFGate, the Bay Area Toll Authority has spent $700,000 using “decoys, cormorant recordings and even nests made from discarded Christmas wreaths.” They’re clearing disused nests, building new ones under the new bridge, and sending any chicks and eggs to the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, but nothing works and more birds keep arriving. Nobody seems to have solicited the ominous soundcapes of Cormorant, the SF-based prog rock/black metal band, though.
Curiously, the birds aren’t causing a delay in the bridge’s demolition, but an equally expensive speeding-up — because if they aren’t gone before the nesting season starts in the spring, Caltrans will have a real problem. As a last-ditch effort to thwart a total work stoppage, they’ve proposed covering the entire thing in netting, like a cherry tree besieged by blue jays. The whole enterprise might tack an extra $33 million on a project already saddled with cost over-runs, which is both mind-boggling and sort of sweet, in a way.
It’s also a little spooky. Imagine crews walking across that silent roadbed to start their shift, with only the faint hum of traffic from the new bridge and a thousand pairs of eyes watching their every move. It’s not quite so Hitchcock-esque, but it would be pretty cool if the birds took over and the half-demolished bridge became a wildlife refuge. I know, I know, totally unfeasible and ridiculous. Except it worked for the sea lions at Pier 39.
