BAY BRIDGE (KRON) -- The wind could play a major factor in whether Caltrans can do all the work it's planning during the four days the Bay Bridge will be closed in both directions over the Labor Day weekend.

"We believe we've scheduled it out so the work can be done easily within the four days," Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney told KRON 4's Mark Danon live on the KRON 4 Morning News.  "What we don't know is how the wind is going to act.  We've got more than 7,000 tons of steel up 150 feet into the air so we're going to be slightly more susceptible to wind in this operation than ever before."

Much of the work will be to connect the new eastern span with the tunnel at Yerba Buena Island.  Ney says very few operations like this one have ever happened.

"It's one of the things Caltrans specializes in around the world.  There aren't many DOT's that try to keep major structures open when they're completely replaced.  We've done this so that we can only close the bridge for the shortest amount of time and replace it with this new section."

Ney says parts for the self-anchored suspension bridge will arrive in the Bay this summer.  Caltrans still hopes to have all of the Bay Bridge work done by "late 2013."

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