Articles tagged with: Bay Bridge

Caltrans says the Bay Bridge will be closed “indefinitely” for emergency repairs after steel components fell from the superstructure onto the upper deck of the bridge Tuesday afternoon, hitting three vehicles.

Commuters are strongly encouraged to plan alternatives for Wednesday’s commute, or stay home if possible.

In the unlikely event you hadn’t heard, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was closed this Labor Day weekend to allow for the moving into place of a short detour section. This detour will allow construction crews to finish building the new Eastern span of the bridge.

You have also probably heard by now that while the actually project went quite well; the bridge’s scheduled re-opening at 5 am Tuesday was thrown into doubt when a crack was discovered during an inspection of the structure.

A potential Bay Area commute nightmare – one where roadways were gridlocked with traffic at a standstill and public transit vehicles full to the brim – never came to be Tuesday after a Herculean effort to repair a cracked piece of steel on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge proved to be fruitful overnight.

At 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, an hour after the original targeted reopening time of the Bay Bridge had lapsed, Caltrans engineers held an impromptu news conference to announce that the bridge would be reopening early – in one hour at 7:00 a.m. because bridge crews had effectively worked to repair a damaged eyebar that threatened to create commuting chaos in the Bay Area all day.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN FROM THE CALIFORNIA BEAT

The Bay Bridge will reopen before the announced deadline of 5 a.m. Wednesday after a colossal effort by Caltrans to repair a cracked eyebar, discovered during a Saturday inspection, that delayed the reopening of the bridge.

Caltrans announced Tuesday that the bridge reopened at 7 a.m. today, only two hours after the original deadline that Caltrans nixed yesterday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN FROM THE CALIFORNIA BEAT

The Bay Bridge – closed for a colossal Labor Day weekend project to replace a 300-foot portion of the old eastern span – will not reopen by the original deadline of 5 a.m. Tuesday because of a crack in an eyebar discovered Saturday, Caltrans said Monday.

Caltrans director Randy Iwasaki said at a news conference Monday afternoon that the new target for reopening the Bay Bridge is 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Commuters are strongly advised to stay home or make alternate plans for Tuesday’s commute.

Bay Area transportation officials met over the Labor Day holiday to come up with a last-minute plan to keep the region moving without the Bay Bridge come Tuesday morning.

Caltrans officials announced Monday afternoon that a cracked “eyebar” – discovered during an inspection of the bridge by work crews – would keep the bridge closed past the original 5 a.m. Tuesday reopening time.

Caltrans is expected to announce Sunday afternoon whether a structural flaw in the eastern span of the Bay Bridge will prevent the bridge from being reopened to traffic on Tuesday morning as scheduled.

Inspectors discovered “a significant crack” in an eyebar up in the superstructure of the cantilever section of the bridge Saturday, said Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney at a news conference Saturday night.

After years of planning and months of warnings, the Bay Bridge will close for four days starting Thursday evening, severing direct transbay auto access between Oakland and San Francisco.

BAY BRIDGE CLOSURE TWITTER UPDATES: Follow @californiabeat for up-to-the-minute updates during the Friday morning commute through the Labor Day weekend for traffic and construction updates.

At 8 p.m. on the dot, Caltrans will cone off access to the approaches to the bridge in West Oakland and San Francisco’s South of Market Area. That means for the first time since the 1989 earthquake, Friday commuters will have no access to the Bay Bridge.

Timothy Ludwig Pflueger

September 26, 1892 – November 20, 1946

Architect

San Francisco native Pflueger is, in my opinion, one of the most forgotten architects of California. Many people probably don’t know his name but they do know some of the projects he has been involved with. Because of this, he has earned a place as a California Beat hero.

Click on the image for the full panorama effect through the California Beat’s Flickr page!

Here we see the Third Street Bridge, AT&T Park (home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, the Bay Bridge, the East Bay across the water and a statue of Willie McCovey.