On Tuesday, May 8, a major milestone on the Bridge Project occurred with the stringing of the first cable-stay strands on the east tower. If you drive over the current bridge, you will see white sheaths that run from the corners of the pier table up to the first casing hole in the tower. Inside each of those sheaths are the strands that will eventually form the first cables that will bear the weight of the pier table.
The time-lapse video above shows the installation of the first sheath with the first strand. A second sheath with a single strand was added Thursday on the channel side of the east tower. These first cable-stays will have 45 strands each. Over the coming few weeks, 44 more strands will be piloted through the sheath, attaching at the casing on the tower, then connected to the pier table. The same process will occur for the other two cable-stays for the back span shortly.
Each of the 80 cable-stays has a specific designation based on its location. Starting at each end-bent (i.e. end of the approach ramp), the cable-stays are numbered 1 to 20 leading out to the center of the main span over the water. In addition to the number, the cable-stays are designated by which side of the new bridge they are on, either north (facing Los Angeles) or south (facing the ocean), as well as which tower, either east or west side of the water channel.
This very first cable-stay is “East 11 North,” referring to its placement on the water side of the east tower on the north side of the Bridge Project. The second cable-stay was “East 11 South,” and the third and fourth ones were “East 10 North” and “East 10 South.” All of the cable-stays on the other tower will be designated as “West [number] [side].” In the weeks to come, the strands will be formed into the full cable-stay. This process will repeat itself for each segment of the main span, with the cable-stays progressively increasing in the number of strands
