Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll renovations

New at 10, a heads up for Bay Area drivers as a major construction project will soon shut down the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge as part of a larger effort to get rid of the toll booths. KTVU's Tom Baker, live for us in San Rafael tonight. And Tom, unlike most of the Caltrans projects that we see, this one is going to be wrapped up in just a matter of hours? Just astonishing. Given the immensity of the task, it's going to be an overnight wonder. Of course, years in the planning. Caltrans will close traffic lanes at 7 p.m. Friday. The bike pedestrian path will close at 9 p.m. By 11 p.m., from the toll lanes all the way to San Quentin, all lanes and paths will be shut down. Crews will lift a massive gantry, holding license plate and fast track reading equipment high above the roadway. By 8 a.m., all the lanes will reopen. From just a nine-hour closure. I think it's amazing that they're going to finish it so quickly. Is it going to be done right? I suppose. And that will help streamline toll services and help decrease our backup in the toll plaza by removing the toll booths eventually. The toll booths will remain for a while. They're not scheduled to be removed, possibly until maybe spring of next year. Then, only a wide open upper deck road. This will be an entire toll plaza in which there will be no booths in the way. The Benicia Bridge has similar fast lanes, but still many unused toll booths, as is the same with the Bay Bridge. The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge will have none. Folks we met at Point Richmond, the first exit off the eastbound bridge, reacted. It's hard to picture what it will look like since it's been, those toll booths have been there since I can remember. You know, it's a piece of history, but I'm sure a lot of folks will love it. I drive through there quite often, and nobody slows down, as you mentioned. So, you know, I think it's time for that to go. It makes sense to me. A big surprise. Folks we met want another thing gone. The sparsely used bike pedestrian path. It takes the third lane, an emergency lane, away from Marin-bound traffic three days a week. A real problem when there's a breakdown or accident. Get rid of the bike lane. Get rid of the bike lane, and that bridge needs three lanes for the tens of thousands of cars that pass over it, like it has below. The lanes should be open for traffic all the time. Bicycles, which is fine, but that doesn't even get close to the number of cars that are going over. So I've been stuck in traffic jams out here. Eventually, all seven Caltrans-owned bridges will be wide open with no remaining toll booths. The last bridge to actually get the treatment will be the Bay Bridge, which already has some of the fast lanes, but it will be, like all the others, fully converted, and then it's fly-on through. Tom Baker, KTVU Fox 2 News, calling back to you. Yep, smooth sailing. All right, thank you, Tom.