Birds Delay Demolition of Old Bay Bridge, Raise Cost

Stubborn cormorants are holding back the $272 million demolition of the old Bay Bridge.

Birds nesting underneath the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge are slowing down the timetable of the $272 million demolition job.

The bridge is scheduled to be down entirely by 2018.

An extra $17.4 million in delays could be tacked onto the final bill thanks to the cormorants, which are refusing to leave, the Contra Costa Times reported, leading the estimated total cost of demolition to rise steadily from its $240 million estimate in 2005.

So far, there's about an 850-foot gap visible to motorists zipping along the $6.4 billion new bridge.

That extra $17.4 million in delay costs will kick in if the birds can't be shooed away by the breeding season that begins in February, the newspaper reported.

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