BAY BRIDGE (BCN) -- The Bay Area Toll Authority voted today to spend $1.3 million to  study the possibility of having bicycle lanes across the entire length of the  San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

      Plans already call for the new eastern span of the bridge, which  is scheduled to open in 2013, to have bike lanes from Oakland to Yerba Buena  Island.

      But there currently are no plans go have bike lanes on the western  span of the Bay Bridge between Treasure Island and downtown San Francisco.

      The bridge is 8.25 miles long and the western section constitutes  about five miles of that distance.

      The Bay Area Toll Authority is a sister agency of the Metropolitan  Transportation Commission, which is the transportation planning, coordinating  and financing agency for the Bay Area, and administers auto tolls on the Bay  Area's seven state-owned toll bridges.

      The study received preliminary approval from the authority's  Oversight Committee two weeks ago and received final approval from its full  board today.

      The study is expected to take about 18 months and entails having  T.Y. Lin International, a San Francisco-based civil and structural  engineering firm, look at the feasibility of having bike lanes on the western  section.

      MTC spokesman John Goodwin said transportation officials didn't  include bike lanes for the western section in their plans to seismically  upgrade the Bay Bridge because the cost seemed too high.

      He said a 2001 study by the California Department of  Transportation concluded it would cost between $160 million and $390 million  to have bicycle lanes on the western section.

      Goodwin said the new study will take a closer look at designs for  bike lanes and prepare more detailed engineering and cost estimates to make  the project eligible for funding.

      The study will also look at how the bike lanes could connect  safely from the deck on the western side of the span to San Francisco's  street system in the Rincon Hill area, Goodwin said.

      The study will be paid for with toll bridge rehabilitation funds,  according to Goodwin.

(Copyright 2009, Bay City News, All rights reserved.)