Bay Bridge Crack

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Bay Bridge Crack

Posted by shaheen in Uncategorized on 07 Sep 2009 | no responses

Crews working on a seismic retrofit of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Saturday found what authorities called a "significant crack" in the eastern span that could keep the California landmark closed beyond a planned holiday weekend shutdown.

During an inspection, workers discovered a problem with a steel link that helps hold up the bridge's eastern portion, senior bridge engineer Ken Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle. The link - part of a network of eight similar pieces - is about two inches (5 centimeters) thick and was cracked halfway through.

"The crack is significant enough to have closed the bridge on its own," Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney said at a news conference Saturday night. "We have to make this repair before we reopen the bridge."

Ney added "it's very possible that this could prevent us from opening Tuesday morning," when the work week resumes and the bridge had been set to reopen.

The 73-year-old bridge connecting Oakland and other East Bay cities with San Francisco was shut down Thursday night so a section of the eastern span could be cut out and replaced with a new double-deck section that will connect the bridge with a short detour.

About 260,000 cars and trucks cross trucks and cars cross the bridge every week day.