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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP/ BCN) ― Crews continued making progress Saturday to finish repairs on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, but California Department of Transportation officials still had no firm idea of when the span would re-open to traffic — indicating it was still too early to say.

Caltrans crews were expected to take much of the weekend to complete the fix of a section where 5,000 pounds of metal fell onto the upper deck of the eastern span on Tuesday evening. One person sustained minor injuries.

Engineers later determined that two rods and a crossbar installed over Labor Day weekend to repair a crack had failed.

The bridge has been closed since then, creating major difficulties for commuters across the region.

At two separate news briefings on Saturday, Caltrans still had no official estimate for reopening. Officials said the bridge would not reopen Saturday night and could not confirm whether it would be open by Monday morning rush hour — although they said it was possible.

"The opening time is still undetermined," spokesman Bart Ney said. "We are focused on making sure this assembly gets put back in place in the safest possible manner."

All officials were willing to say at this point was that drivers would have to check back periodically over the course of the weekend to see if they would be faced with another grueling commute around a closed bridge on Monday.

Workers on Saturday were custom-fitting steel parts to the bridge's damaged portion and grinding smooth the areas where steel rubs on steel to a perfect fit, Caltrans said.

Still left to do as of Saturday evening, spokeswoman Lauren Wonder said, was "tensioning" of the repaired eyebar and supporting steel, stress tests, and inspection by an independent team of experts.

Stress testing the repair work was to begin once crews finished cutting and grinding parts so they did not rub together. That process typically takes about three hours, on top of the time independent inspectors might need to check out the repair work.

"We've never done a modification like this so it's difficult to predict how long it will take," Ney said of the testing.

Caltrans indicated that work on the bridge had been going on around the clock since Tuesday night, with crews trying to get the repairs done quickly, efficiently and safely.

"Crews are working 24-7 to get these repairs as quickly and efficiently but as safely as possible," Wonder said. "We want to make sure this is safe and works correctly."

Added Ney, "We're handling fatigue by shifting out crews. Crews are putting in long hours but we're shifting them out as they get tired and they fulfill their shift."

The new bridgework would be subjected to several inspection processes, officials said. In addition to Caltrans, the Federal Highway Administration, a seismic peer review board and other third-party groups were to examine the finished repairs.

"Caltrans will step back and the third party group that's coming in to look at it will take a look at the system as it is completed and take a look at how it handles vibrations," said Ney.

Caltrans has not released a cost estimate for the emergency repairs.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system, which links Oakland and San Francisco through a tube beneath the Bay, planned to run trains overnight again Saturday night — service usually ends around midnight.

Fourteen of BART's 43 stations would run hourly trains overnight Saturday into Sunday, according to BART spokesman Linton Johnson. The hourly trains were to run in the East Bay, San Francisco and down the Peninsula from midnight until normal Sunday morning service resumes at 8 a.m.

The agency ran overnight trains Friday night into Saturday morning, which helped BART record its second-highest ridership total ever on Friday at 437,700, Johnson said.

The bridge closure has dramatically increased ridership this week. On Wednesday, BART carried a record number of passengers, then broke its own record on Thursday with a total of 442,000 passengers.

However BART has said it would be unable to run overnight trains Sunday into Monday morning if the bridge remained closed. The agency needed to pull its trains out of service to inspect and prepare them for Monday rush hour, according to Johnson.

Overnight train schedules were available at bart.gov. Motorists who were seeking alternate bridge travel information could visit 511.org.

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