Bay Bridge To Open Late Monday

November 2, 2009 10:08 a.m. EST

San Francisco, CA (AHN) - The California Department of Transportation has completed repairing a crossbar and rods that came loose last week, and plans to open the Bay Bridge late Monday.

The bridge, where about 270,000 vehicles pass daily, was closed since last Tuesday after parts of a beam assembly inserted during the Labor Day weekend, collapsed.

Officials had hoped to finish fixing the assembly by Friday, but CalTrans engineers continued working on the bridge together with a contractor through the weekend, after third party testing on Thursday. Alternate routes have been established and BART has been providing extra train service for commuters.

The 4.5-mile Bay Bridge was closed for five days in September for a seismic retrofitting project, which involved replacing a 300-foot part east of the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel. Prior to that Labor Day construction, an inspection of the East Span had revealed a crack that was not discovered when the bridge was last inspected two years ago, but CalTrans had said the crack had not posed any danger to motorists.

The ongoing repair on the 73-year-old bridge involves "enhancements" that will prevent a similar collapse of the assembly.

CalTrans said the crossbar and tie rods of the assembly came loose because of "metal fatigue....caused by vibrations from the bridge," and that "heavy wind may have contributed to the problem." The agency said the enhancements including strapping the rods to eyebars to keep these from falling again, and installing "deeper, stronger welds to connect crossbars and saddles into a single unit to avoid metal-on-metal fatigue."

The Federal Highway Administration has been asked to review the repairs. Final inspections were underway Monday morning ahead of the opening.