Your Bay Bridge Toll Money Is Hard at Work

Do you know where your toll money goes?

At least some of it is going to fund the new Bay Bridge toll plaza headquarters at a cost of $30 million.

The new offices will be an eco-friendly replacement of the 74-year-old administration building that currently sits next to the toll plaza that greets commuters with $6 tolls every morning. Maybe you shouldn't feel so bad the next time your short on toll and trying to figure out how to cross the bridge.

But it might be time for a change. The current building doesn't have the greatest reviews.

The Chronicle's Matier and Ross report the building will open in 2012 with the Green Building Council's Silver standard and its design "will also mirror the sweep of the bridge's new eastern span."

Sounds nice. But there is more.

The new building is just the first part of a Caltrans makeover project to convert its maintenance yard into a tree-lined park just in time for the opening of the new bridge, which is of course costing taxpayers and drivers millions more than initially thought.

But rest easy, the cost of the rest of this project is still yet to be determined.

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