California Dept. of Transportation delayed opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge until federal inspectors sign off on the second bridge repair since Labor Day. The transportation corridor, which carries an estimated 280,000 cars per day, closed Tuesday evening after a steel bar cracked during a windy afternoon commute, dropping a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors into traffic. The incident caused a non-injury accident and an enormous traffic jam. Caltrans officials said they were doing all they could to open before the Monday morning commute, but were putting safety first.
The pieces that fell were part of an emergency fix by Sacramento-based bridge-builder C.C. Myers Inc. over Labor Day weekend after an inspection unrelated to the company�s installation of a new onramp revealed a crack in a steel structural eyebeam in the cantilevered eastern span. Caltrans worked with contractors fabricate a steel saddle brace to wrap around the cracked eyebar, redistributing tension away from the damaged area and linking it with tie rods to a lower saddle.