An unexpected crack found in a section of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge delayed the planned Sept. 8 reopening only by about 90 minutes, rather than a full day, thanks to fast delivery from a fabricator and non-stop work by the contractor. Although the $140-million removal of a 3,200-ton double-deck section went as planned, California Dept. of Transportation inspection crews then reported a crack in an eyebar—a 2-in.-thick, chainlike steel piece—located on another section of the east span.
Over the Labor Day weekend, general contractor C.C. Myers, Rancho Cordova, Calif., cut out a 300-ft-long section of double-deck steel truss and rolled it out on special tracks—a feat quite similar to that done on a section connecting to Yueba Buena Island two years ago. Crews then rolled in a new 3,600-ton section that will serve as a detour until the new $6.3-billion Bay Bridge is completed. But as Caltrans engineers began inspecting the results, they found the crack. They determined that a steel brace would have to be manufactured to surround the cracked eyebar and be attached to another, lower pair of eyebars in order to redistribute tension load, says Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney.