Nov 2, 2009 1:47 pm US/Pacific
Bay Bridge Reopens After Weeklong Closure
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
-
-
Traffic flows across the eastern span of the Bay Bridge November 2, 2009.
Justin Sullivan /Getty Images
-
-
Pieces of Bay Bridge that fell onto the upper deck Tuesday night.
CBS
-
-
One of the cars damaged during the Bay Bridge cable break.
CBS
Nearly a week of frustration ended for commuters when the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reopened around 9 a.m. Monday following emergency repairs.
Traffic began moving across the span after two rods and a crossbar were replaced and passed vibration and other tests, said Bart Ney, a spokesman for the state transportation department.
"I know that it's been difficult," he said. "But we're happy to be returning the Bay Bridge to public service."
A
CBS 5 poll conducted Monday following the completetion of the repairs and the reopening found 41% of Bay Area residents were "very concerned" about the safety of local bridges.
The poll, conducted for CBS 5 by the firm SurveyUSA, showed an additional 29% of area residents were "somewhat concerned" over bridge safety.
Despite the concerns, 57% of the 500 people polled indicated that they had confidence in Caltrans.
Cars lined up at the Bay Bridge toll plaza shortly before Monday morning's re-opening. The first vehicles allowed to cross the bridge's upper deck were led by a line of California Highway Patrol cars.
The span was closed for nearly six days after 5,000 pounds of metal came crashing down into rush-hour traffic last Tuesday evening when the two rods and crossbar failed. The parts had been installed over the Labor Day weekend to repair a crack.
One person sustained minor injuries and three cars were damaged when the metal fell.
Workers installed new rods, but a test over the weekend showed the rods were rubbing against metal, which could cause them to fail. The parts then had to be reworked.
"It was not acceptable because the repair couldn't keep the alignment in place and steel was rubbing steel," Ney said.
He indicated that crews worked overnight into Monday morning to fine-tune the repairs in a way that avoids "metal rubbing on metal."
The work "went very well and was efficient," Ney said.
The repair work then underwent a stress test that consisted of running trucks on the lower deck of the bridge to check vibration levels. Ney said only minor vibrations occurred and that the repair work "passed the test with flying colors."
In addition, Ney said, inspectors manually shook new steel rods that had been put in place.
Caltrans attributed last week's failure to the inability of the tie rods to withstand strong vibrations caused in part by heavy winds last week.
Ney said the inspections were performed both by Caltrans and by outside experts, including Federal Highway Administration officials and two college engineering professors.
The new fix includes anti-vibration dampeners and measures to prevent parts from falling on the bridge if they fail again, he added.
Ney said Caltrans would inspect the repaired section daily during off-peak hours to see how it is performing. One lane of traffic would be closed during those inspections, he explained.
The just ended bridge closure — the longest since it was shut down for a month after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake — had snarled traffic on Bay Area roads, as the roughly 280,000 commuters who use the bridge each day looked for alternate routes.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit Agency ran longer trains during the closure and provided overnight service over the weekend.
(© 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.)
Real-Time Traffic Conditions | 
Web Cam Network
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments