After a series of delays (at least four), engineers working on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge are finally confident enough in their progress to give a projected date for the completion of the bridge's bike path. NBC Bay Area reports that Caltrans officials have pegged the opening date to September — two years behind schedule.

“That’s been a bit of a challenge,’’ the Caltrans engineer managing the bike path project, Steve Whipple, told the channel. He was speaking of attempts to design a secure way to attach the bike path to the bridge. "We had to find the right locations where we could drill holes and insert large bolts into it which the cantilever beams will ultimately be connected to.”

The path, which when completed will connect the East Bay with Yerba Buena Island, has met with numerous delays stemming from various causes. Design, materials, and the need to remove structural elements of the old bridge before continuing all played rolls in the repeated delays. The decided upon design involves cantilevered beams, and was a projected $1.1 million redesign of the original braced design that (of course) is now expected to actually cost $2.5 million.

Bike advocates, having long ago resigned themselves to the slow moving nature of Caltrans, appear cautiously optimistic about the news. “We have about 4,000 members in the East Bay who ask me all the time 'when are we going to ride to Treasure Island,’" explained the executive director of Bike East Bay, Renee Rivera. “We’ve had quite a few delays. We’re really hoping it will happen this summer.”

However, even when the path is done, biking from the East Bay to Yerba Buena isn't going to be the smoothest of tasks. The path down from the bridge will overlap the highly trafficked Hillcrest and Treasure Island Roads until, a few years later, a direct bike path can be built following Macalla Road.

As to when you'll be biking all the way to San Francisco, no one can really say.

Previously: Second Redesign Of Bay Bridge Eastern Span Bike Path May Delay It Yet Again