Unforeseen soil conditions surrounding foundations on a new $1.2- billion cable-stayed bridge have added as much as 18 months to the construction schedule, say officials at the Port of Long Beach, Calif.
"The soil has turned out to be more complicated than the engineers originally thought," says John Pope, port spokesman. The 1.2-mile-long Gerald Desmond Bridge is being constructed above two aquifers contaminated with benzene and subsiding land in an area marked by oil wells, he says.