The New Carquinez Bridge (the Al Zampa Memorial Bridge) was built by FCI Constructors/Cleveland Bridge California, a Joint Venture. FCI is a company from Colorado, owned by a Dutch company; HBG Constructors, which was sold in April of 2002 to a Spanish company, Groupo Dragados. On June 11, 2002 Groupo Dragados sold HBG to another Dutch Company, Royal BAM NBM nv. I wonder what the Spanish wanted (and no doubt got) from HBG that they would buy and sell them so quickly.

Cleveland Bridge California is a Division of a British company, Cleveland Bridge The roadway is being pre-fabricated in Japan by Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. There are 24 sections of roadway that will span the straits. The sections will be transported across the ocean on a ship and then lifted off the ship by a system called strand jacking which is from a division of Cleveland Bridge called Dorman/Long. The main cables, which will be 20 inches in diameter when complete, were fabricated by another British company, Bridon Group. A Norwegian company, Hordaland, (in a joint venture with Dorman/Long), (click on the Hordaland link on this page), is going to do the main cable spinning. The suspenders were made here in America by WRCA and we as Americans can at least be proud of that.

So, as you can see, this is most definitely not an American bridge. This becomes painfully obvious when you look at the top of P1, the tower at the edge of the water at the bottom of the picture above. As of June, flying proudly above this 100' structure is the Australian and British flags. The only thing that makes it even slightly palatable is the Stars and Stripes flying above them. The Australian flag is flying, I presume, because some of the superintendants were from Down Under. The only thing American about this bridge is the design and the Union Labor building it. I believe these foreign flags are an insult to every American taxpayer and should be taken down immediately. I can't imagine these Brits putting up with the American flag flying high on a bridge over the Thames.