Other News...
                        sponsored by

Bay Bridge won't be open for Monday morning drive

Send a link to a friend

[November 02, 2009]  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- With another workweek and another commuter crush looming, there was still no word Sunday night on when the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge would be open to traffic again. But authorities said it certainly would not be functioning in time for the Monday morning drive.

"We're not making a prediction on when the bridge will reopen," California Department of Transportation spokesman Bart Ney said at a news conference.

Ney said crews still had to conduct more enhancement work and several more stress tests and inspections before the bridge would open.

The bridge has been closed since Tuesday night after two rods and a crossbar installed over Labor Day weekend to repair a crack failed, sending 5,000 pounds of metal into rush-hour traffic.

It is already the longest closure since the span was shut down for a month after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and could easily stretch to a week.

Workers Monday will be faced with another grueling commute around a closed bridge.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit Agency provided 24-hour train service through the weekend but could not run trains all night Sunday into Monday because of its own safety inspection requirements, the agency said in a news release Sunday night.

BART officials did plan to run longer trains to handle the bigger load of commuters Monday morning, and would continue to do so as long as the bridge remained closed, the release said.

State Transportation Department spokeswoman Lauren Wonder said crews spent the weekend cutting and grinding parts. She said installing the new rods is a tedious process that requires workers to put the rods in place and then uninstall them while adjustments are made to ensure they don't rub against other metal parts.

Even as such tasks were finished they had to be followed by a series of independent inspections, prolonging the process and the closure.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Nursing Homes

< Top Stories index

Back to top


 

News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries

Community | Perspectives | Law & Courts | Leisure Time | Spiritual Life | Health & Fitness | Teen Scene
Calendar | Letters to the Editor