Mini-Bay Bridge will stretch over downtown San Francisco

Like a Las Vegas-style replica, a mini-version of the towering eastern span of the Bay Bridge will soon light up downtown San Francisco as part of the bus ramp for the new $2.7 billion Transbay Transit Center.

The mini-span, costing $22 million, will enable buses to speed between the terminal at First and Mission streets and the Bay Bridge without having to negotiate clogged city streets.

Although slightly different in design from the self-anchored Bay Bridge eastern span that opened in 2013, it’s a near-mimic of the span’s cable suspension section, right down to the all-white color.

The bus bridge’s tower isn’t simply decorative: It will be key to holding up the ramp where it crosses over the transit center’s basement space, which may one day be a terminal for trains traveling up and down the Peninsula and beyond.

Using pillars to hold up the road wasn’t an option — they would have to be sunk into the basement, and that would interfere with the trains, according to officials of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, the agency in charge of the transit center’s construction.

The agency is downplaying any resemblance of the mini-bridge to the costly and trouble-plagued new eastern span, saying in a statement that “the look and color was intended to match the transit center.”

The mini-span is part of a $58 million bid submitted by Shimmick Construction Co. to build the six-block-long bus ramp.

The bid was nearly $9 million more than what the transit center authority estimated — but then, there’s very little about the new transit center that has come in on budget.

Pick push: In a move that has all the makings of a political campaign, San Francisco’s Police Officers Association — which has been under fire by critics for racial insensitivity — is coming out early and loud for acting Police Chief Toney Chaplin to be the next permanent chief.

“The SFPOA, which represents over 99 percent of all SFPD officers, is looking for the right leader at the right time,” police union chief Martin Halloran said in a Facebook post over the weekend. “The POA believes that Chief Toney Chaplin is that candidate.”

The union also plans to push for Chaplin, who is African American, in a series of ads running during the next two weeks on KCBS radio.

The union’s move appears aimed both at defusing criticism of the POA and at knocking back at critics who feel that Chaplin lacks the leadership experience. Chaplin has been with the department for 26 years, but he didn’t start his rise through the command ranks until 2012.

“The last thing we need is someone from the outside thinking they understand this city or this department,” said former union President Gary Delagnes, who is now a consultant to the POA.

Chaplin is among 60 applicants for the job, but only a handful are from inside the department — and the union isn’t crazy about any of the internal alternatives to Chaplin.

“Chaplin has been a street cop, he has the respect of the rank and file, and, let’s be honest — he’s African American,” Delagnes said.

Payback?: The LGBT advocacy group Equality California is unleashing a costly cable TV and digital ad attack this week against state Senate candidate Jane Kim, with the punch line, “What you see isn’t what you get.”

The ad rips into Kim for allegedly taking stands both for and against affordable housing, for and against Twitter tax breaks and for and against former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, whom Kim voted to keep on the job following his guilty plea to a misdemeanor count in a domestic violence incident involving his wife.

The attack makes no mention of Kim’s opponent in the race — fellow San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who is gay and whom the LGBT political action committee is backing.

Equality California has booked $340,000 worth of TV time this month alone, and could double that amount before the race is over.

Rick Zbur, the group’s executive director, says “it’s important to have a strong LGBT legislator with a seat at the table.” If Wiener loses on Nov. 8, Zbur notes, it will be the first time in 20 years that San Francisco won’t have an openly gay or lesbian legislator in Sacramento.

Zbur also makes no secret of the group’s unhappiness with Kim for accusing Equality California of essentially paying for its primary campaign on Wiener’s behalf largely with money laundered from Chevron.

Chevron had contributed $300,000 to the business-friendly Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy, which in turn gave a chunk to Equality California.

“If it bothered (Equality California) so much to be associated with Chevron, perhaps they should not have taken a $70,000 contribution from a business-backed committee that has Chevron as its major donor,” said Kim campaign manager Eric Jaye.

Gay activist Cleve Jones, who is in Kim’s corner, chastised Equality California in an open letter for funding its latest campaign with donations from a wide range of Sacramento business interests, including the Calfornia Apartment Association and California Association of Realtors.

“You should be ashamed,” Jones wrote.

For her part, Kim benefited from a similar $40,000 contribution to an independent committee from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in the primary.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross