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The Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) board has awarded a $7.7 million contract to California Engineering Contractors to install steel plating inside the 3.6-mile long Transbay Tube as part of the agency’s 10-year earthquake safety program.

The contract will require the contractor to bolt 2.5-inch steel plates on the concrete wall of the Transbay Tube. The work is expected to begin in spring and be completed in two years, BART officials said in a prepared statement.

Although the tube was not damaged during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, it is part of the program designed to shore up BART’s system to withstand a major earthquake. The program began in 2001, and significant work to strengthen the tube already has been completed.

 “Our earthquake safety program retrofit started in the Transbay Tube and we are almost finished,” said BART President John McPartland. “This upcoming work is yet another indication that we take seriously our responsibility to prepare for the inevitability of a major earthquake.”

In addition to the tube, the overall project calls for strengthening 34 stations, 22 miles of elevated track, 1,918 support columns, parking structures and other facilities.

The Transbay Tube connects San Francisco to Oakland, Calif., and accommodates trains carrying about half of BART’s 365,000 weekday riders.