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The original span of the William Preston Lane Jr., Memorial Bridge needs new paint. Touch ups have been done all along and the bridge was painted entirely between 1983 and 1986,17 but now it needs the old paint to be removed, including the original lead based product. The project started in the summer of 1998 and is expected to take five years and cost $71 million.18 The George Campbell Painting Corporation won the contract for the first phase, which includes the center sections of the Bridge. |
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One of the things that makes the project so expensive is that the workers arrive by boat, so traffic on the Bridge can keep moving.19
Sherwin-Williams, with a manufacturing plant in Baltimore, will be supplying 40,000 gallons of "Bay Bridge Silver Gray." The new epoxy-based paint, with one basecoat and one topcoat is expected to last 20 years and Campbell will provide a 10 year warranty on their work.20 |
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Blasting lead paint off the old metal structure a hundred feet above the Bay is the kind of thing that makes the local environmentalists queasy. To protect the Bay, the Bridge traffic and themselves, paint crews are employing a variety of high-tech equipment. All stages of the work; paint removal, surface preparation and paint application, must be done in large sealed containment boxes.21 Beneath these boxes, funnels suck the old paint dust out and send it through tubes into barges waiting on the Bay below. Workers are covered from head to toe in protective suits, which include air conditioned helmets.