Disaster For 260,000 Commuters As The Bay Bridge Linking San Francisco And Oakland Closes Indefinitely

Bay Bridge Closed Indefinitely For Repairs
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Caltrans crews on the Bay Bridge after it was closed Tuesday night.
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511.org: Bay Bridge AlternativesAuthorities on Tuesday indefinitely closed the Bay Bridge after a rod and a metal brace erected last month during an emergency repair job fell onto the bridge's westbound lanes, startling a pair of drivers who collided with the debris and leaving hundreds of others stranded in their cars during the evening commute.The bridge will remain closed "until further notice" while engineers evaluate the damage and figure out how to fix it, the California Department of Transportation said in a statement. No injuries were reported.The rod, part of the emergency repair performed on Labor Day, was holding in place a saddle-like cap that was installed over a cracked link. On Tuesday, it apparently snapped, bringing down with it a steel patch roughly 3 feet long around 5:30 p.m., said California Highway Patrol Officer Peter Van Eckhardt.Caltrans is working with Bay Area transit agencies Tuesday night to prepare for the Wednesday morning commute.The bridge was closed in both directions around 8 p.m. Tuesday night, Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney said.All traffic is being diverted to other bridges, and the CHP around 9:30 p.m. was continuing to escort motorists who were on the bridge when the closure was implemented.Caltrans said more than 40 portable, changeable messages are being used around the Bay Area, as well as overhead changeable message signs on freeways, to alert motorists of the closure.California Highway Patrol Sgt. Trent Cross said the CHP received a report of a cable that had broken loose and struck three vehicles. An occupant of a Ryder Truck sustained a minor injury due to shattered glass. No other injuries were reported.Before the closure, traffic was already backed up into Oakland.The incident occured near the same section of bridge where a big rig crashed earlier this month.Crews Tuesday night were continuing to assess the situation and work on a final repair plan.The closure of the bridge was expected to cause a traffic nightmare during the morning commute. The California Highway Patrol was alerting Bay Area transit operators about the closure so they could try to prepare for a crush of additional passengers Wednesday.BART spokesman Linton Johnson said the agency will run longer trains Tuesday night to accommodate an increase in riders. In the event the bridge remains closed Wednesday morning, BART will run all available trains, Johnson said.The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District announced Tuesday night that all southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge in the toll plaza will be open by 4 a.m. to accommodate heavy traffic.Additionally, the Golden Gate Ferry will be prepared to add a high-capacity vessel to operate after 7 a.m. from Larkspur to San Francisco, according to the district.The 73-year-old bridge, which carries about 260,000 vehicles a day between San Francisco and heavily populated cities to its east, was closed over the Labor Day weekend so a football-field-sized, 3,300-ton section of the eastern span could be cut out and replaced with a new double-deck section.The work was part of a seismic upgrade and had to be completed 150 feet above the ground.When crews weren't able to fix the crack that was discovered in the span September 5th in time for the bridge's scheduled reopening at 5 a.m. September 8th, traffic was jammed as commuters tried to take alternate routes.Caltrans officials had nothing to say Tuesday about what might have caused the repair job to fail. The department issued a brief statement saying only that "structural engineers and inspectors are onsite to assess the damage and will make a determination as to how long repairs will take."At this time, the bridge is closed until further notice," the statement said.Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a civil engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley who has spent 20 years studying the Bay Bridge, called the initial crack a "warning sign" of potentially bigger safety issues with the bridge."The repair they were doing was really a Band-Aid," said Astaneh-Asl, who criticized Caltrans at the time for rushing to reopen the bridge. "The Band-Aid broke, in essence."Astaneh-Asl said the failure of the repair job demonstrates the need for a longer-term solution. The span's age and design make it susceptible to collapse, especially if commercial tractor-trailers are allowed to continue using it, he said."I think Caltrans is putting public relations ahead of public safety," he said.
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