Nov 1, 2009 6:59 pm US/Pacific
Bridge Won't Reopen For Monday Commute
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ―
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Workers make emergency repairs to the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Pieces of Bay Bridge that fell onto the upper deck Tuesday night.
CBS
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One of the cars damaged during the Bay Bridge cable break.
CBS
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge would not be open to traffic for the Monday morning commute, officials said, as stress tests of emergency bridge repairs did not progress as well as hoped.
California Department of Transportation spokesman Bart Ney said during a briefing Sunday evening that crews still had to conduct more enhancement work, stress tests and inspections before the bridge could open.
He said commuters should again plan other alternatives to get across the Bay on Monday morning.
"We're not making a prediction on when the bridge will reopen," Ney said when asked if he could estimate when the bridge would be available again for commuters.
"I know that's frustrating for motorists, but we don't want to make a false prediction, and we want to put safety first," he said.
The bridge has been closed since last Tuesday night after two rods and a crossbar installed over Labor Day weekend to repair a crack failed, sending 5,000 pounds of metal into traffic on the upper deck of the eastern span near Yerba Buena Island.
Earlier Sunday, Ney said that crews were forced to stop stress tests that they had been conducting, because of the same metal-on-metal problem that caused the original break during a period of high winds. The tests have since resumed.
Repairs to the damaged crossbar on the bridge were initially completed Saturday, but they apparently weren't holding up to the initial stress tests.
"Engineers didn't get what they were looking for," Ney said.
The tests showed that there was still metal-on-metal fatigue between pieces of the new repair structure.
Crews took the night off beginning late Saturday after working 24 hours a day since the bridge closed, Ney said.
"They've been hard at it for four days," he explained. "We thought it was a good time to take a rest."
He said they resumed work at 7 a.m. Sunday and did not have a break planned for Sunday night.
"We're still working and have a list of things to do" before the overall system is inspected, Ney said.
Workers have been trying to custom-fit steel parts to the bridge's damaged portion and smooth the areas where steel rubs on steel for the stress tests.
The new bridgework would be subjected to several inspection processes. In addition to Caltrans, the Federal Highway Administration, a seismic peer review board and other third-party groups will examine the finished repairs.
"It's a unique situation," said Lauren Wonder, another Caltrans spokesperson. "We're doing things as quickly and efficiently, but ultimately as safely as possible."
Bay Area Rapid Transit announced they would operate longer trains than usual for Monday's morning rush hour period.
"We are calling in extra personnel to help us make sure we operate with every available train car we have in order to provide as much capacity as possible," said BART assistant general manager Paul Oversier.
BART had been running trains overnight for the past two days but would take their trains out of service Sunday night to inspect and prepare them for Monday morning, according to BART spokesman Linton Johnson.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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