San Francisco Artery Reopens After Second Emergency Fix
As 280,000 daily vehicles resumed using the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 2 after a six-day repair of a steel saddle that holds a cracked truss section in place, engineers and metallurgists were still investigating why the original Labor Day weekend fix failed so quickly.
The Oct. 27 failure occurred when a 5,000-lb crossbeam and steel connectors fell into afternoon traffic, causing one accident and a traffic jam. The pieces that fell were installed over Labor Day weekend under an emergency contract by Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based C.C. Myers Inc. The bridge had been closed to allow CCM to install a 288-ft detour ramp as part of the bridge’s $6.3-billion reconstruction. A routine inspection revealed a crack in a structural eyebar—a 2-in.-thick, chain-like steel member—in the cantilevered eastern span.