Late night delays in the Transbay Tube three days a week are coming to an end as BART engineers have completed earthquake retrofit work there ahead of schedule, BART officials announced.
BART began the work in March and estimated that it would take 14 months, and since then BART trains traveling between Oakland and San Francisco after 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays have been delayed 10-15 minutes.
The work involved adding 4-ton steel plates to the inside of the tube to strengthen it in case of an earthquake, BART officials said.
Crews hauled the plates into the tube each night and bolted them to the side and have now finished welding them together, end-to-end, according to BART. The work ended up taking only 8 months.
“With this phase of strengthening complete, BART will begin planning the next stages of this multi-year effort,” group manager of BART Earthquake Safety Program group manager Tom Horton said. “All work will be planned to minimize impact to our riders. The result will be a stronger, safer Transbay Tube.”
