Collapsed retaining wall brings lane closures, major delays to I-580
SAN FRANCISCO - Tuesday night saw a soggy evening commute across the Bay Area with downed trees and wet roads leading to slow downs along many of the busiest freeways.
Eastbound 580 over the Altamont is seeing major delays after a retaining wall collapsed Monday afternoon below the freeway just east of North Flynn Road.
Two eastbound lanes have been closed since early Monday afternoon, and Caltrans says it doesn't know how long it will be before crews can fix it.
"Our designers are looking at it right now, our structural engineers are looking at it right now. It may be possible for us to drive sheet piles which can sort of re-establish the retaining wall for a period of time, giving us the capacity back but it looks like we're looking at a rebuild," said Bart Ney, a spokesperson for CalTrans.
But why are these roads failing? We asked SJSU Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Laura Sullivan-Green.
"They are designed for moisture within the soil, but this season has been atypical in terms of the amount of rainfall, the intensity of the rainfall and the duration of the rainfall," said Dr. Sullivan-Green. She says you can see evidence of this with all the slides happening in the hills around the Bay Area. As the top soil is saturated, it gets heavier and heavier until a weak spot below the ground gives way, which leads to a slide.
"When something gets wet over and over and over again, the chances of failure just increase every time we see a storm," says Dr. Sullivan-Green.
For drivers who regularly commute over the Altamont, the hope is the storms will let up so traffic get back to the usual slow slog versus the current crawl.
"We're going to be backed up. You're going to see… you're going to be sitting in traffic for a really long time," says Sean Visperas who is trying to get home to Elk Grove from San Jose.
"I'm stuck so that's all we need, so when are they going to take care of it? As soon as possible. That's all we're hoping," said Fahim Syed who drives over to Tracy 3 days a week to pick his daughter up from school.
"It used to be kind of a nightmare. It would add like an extra hour to my day on the way home anyway. Now it's just even worse," says Chris Nast. He lives in Tracy and commutes over the Altamont daily.
CalTrans says a top priority is to get traffic moving as much as possible in the area, so as long as it's dry Wednesday, crews are going to restripe the lines on the road allowing drivers to use the shoulder, effectively adding a 4th lane going eastbound.