Veteran Construction Team Taking Bay Bridge To New Heights

SACRAMENTO (CBS) – At Sacramento-based MCM Construction, bridges are their business. They have worked on between 1,200 and 1,500 bridges in California alone. These days there is no bigger project than the new span of the Oakland Bay Bridge. It's been MCM's home away from home for the last 6 years.

"We fabricate all the falsework in this yard, then we truck all the components to the job site. At the job site they'll assemble them and erect them into place," said Ed Puchi of MCM Construction.

Falsework is the construction of the temporary structures on the new span that hold concrete forms in place until it gets to strength, basically molding concrete to its desired shape. Without the falsework, a safe bridge could not be built.

"We've had probably, on average, about 350 people on the project at one time or another. We had a peak of almost 500," said Puchi.

The company's biggest challenge has been the height of the falsework and the uneven landscape.