Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney said this morning that there is still “a lot of work to be done” to complete repairs to the Bay Bridge and that the agency does not yet have an estimated reopening time for the bridge.
Ney said it’s unlikely it will be open for this afternoon’s commute but said, “We are going to do everything we can to open the bridge today.”
He said crews were expecting to complete necessary welding and grinding work by 8 a.m. to prepare to put four new rods in place to take tension off a cracked eyebar that was discovered during a massive Labor Day weekend construction project.
Once that welding work is completed, work can begin to install the rods. Then tensioning, inspection and cleanup can get under way to get the bridge reopened.
The emergency repairs come after a steel crossbeam and two steel tie rods fell off the bridge’s eastern span onto the upper deck near the new S-curve at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Three vehicles were struck, and an occupant of a Ryder truck suffered a minor injury due to shattered glass.
The crossbeam and rods were used in temporary repair work done to fix the cracked eyebar over the Labor Day weekend.
Ney said there were four tie rods, two on each side, that held the 3-foot-wide steel crossbeam in place. Caltrans is replacing all four tie rods, not just the two that fell off, Ney said.
