9/7 8:35 AM: It remains unknown whether the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will reopen for the Tuesday morning commute after an inspection revealed a crack in the bridge, California Department of Transportation spokesman Bart Ney said this morning.
The Bay Bridge was scheduled to reopen by 5 a.m. Tuesday after a complex Labor Day weekend replacement project that called for crews to be stationed 150 feet in the air to cut away a double-deck bridge section the size of two stacked football fields and slide in a prefabricated replacement.
But a cracked eyebar spotted during an inspection of the bridge Saturday had construction crews scrambling this weekend to complete designs for the repair work and gather all the materials needed to finish the project, according to Ney.
At a news conference on the Bay Bridge this morning, Ney said, “It is a monumental challenge to make it by 5 a.m.”
He said crews are doing their best with the unexpected setback, but drivers should still consider alternatives to the Bay Bridge for Tuesday.
“We’re working hard to make it done,” Ney said. “But commuters should be thinking about a plan B if they want to be conservative.”
9/6 10:47 PM: It will be “quite a challenge” to repair a damaged part of the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in time to reopen the bridge for the Tuesday morning commute, California Department of Transportation spokesman Bart Ney said today.
A cracked eyebar was spotted during an inspection of the bridge Saturday, and construction crews scrambled this weekend to complete designs for the repair work and gather all the materials needed to complete the project, according to Ney.
The Bay Bridge was scheduled to reopen by 5 a.m. Tuesday after a complex Labor Day weekend replacement project that called for crews to be stationed 150 feet in the air to cut away a double-deck bridge section the size of two stacked football fields and slide in a prefabricated replacement.
“I can’t really just say that we’ll make it by Tuesday at 5 a.m., but we’re going to be doing everything we can to complete this repair,” Ney said.
Ney said a 10-man crew is doing the work on the damaged part of the bridge and has all the necessary equipment on hand.
“It’s actually been an incredible effort just to get fabricators together, the design done, and all the materials here during a Labor Day weekend when most people are out enjoying barbeques,” he said.
The originally scheduled work on the bridge is still expected to be completed by 5 a.m. Tuesday, according to Ney, who said that “over the next day we’re going to be finishing off all the ancillary items we need to do to get this bridge back into freeway condition so we can open it up.”
Caltrans has been building a new eastern span and upgrading the western side of the bridge in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which damaged the bridge and forced it to be closed for a month.
The work to replace a section of the Bay Bridge east of the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel to connect the bridge to a temporary detour is one of the biggest and most important parts of the project to build the new eastern span, according to Ney.
The bridge, which is one of the busiest spans in the nation and carries about 280,000 vehicles a day, was closed on Friday, the first time it had been closed on a regular commute day for seismic work.
Caltrans is holding a press briefing at 8 a.m. Monday on Yerba Buena Island to provide further updates on the project and the likelihood of possible delays due to the repair work.
