Update on the bridge bolts in SF...

Caltrans will be spending a whopping $10 million this year to keep an eye on those questionable bolts holding together the new $6.4 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge.

And transportation insiders tell us that $10 million could just be the start.

"We will have to get into the spring to determine if there's enough (money) to do the tests we want to do, but there is always the possibility we will need additional testing," said bridge project spokesman Andrew Gordon.

The bolt problem first surfaced in March when a third of the 96 rods used to secure seismic braces - known as shear keys - to one section of the bridge cracked when they were tightened down.

The problem was traced to the galvanizing process that caused the rods to become overly brittle when they were left standing in rainwater.

It wound up costing about $25 million - more than double the original estimate - to fix the problem and get the bridge opened by Labor Day.

Caltrans is still trying to assess the likelihood that some of the thousands of other high-strength rods and bolts - including more than 400 used to anchor the base of the tower - could be defective and eventually fail as well.

If they are found to be faulty, the cost of repairs will make the money being spent on testing the bridge look like chump change.

"It's long been an obscenely over-budget project," said state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. "It continues to be discouraging."