Caltrans To Reveal Opening Date For New Bay Bridge Thursday
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS / AP / BCN) -- The opening date for the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which initially had been set for Labor Day and then was pushed back to December or later, will be announced on Thursday, state transportation officials said Tuesday.
State Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee members said they will set the new opening date in the wake of a report by the Federal Highway Administration that says making a temporary fix to bolt problems on the new span will make it safe for traffic and it should be put in place as quickly as possible.
In a letter, the Federal Highway Administration said it was "impressed" with the level of expertise used to come up with the temporary fix and saw no reason to delay opening the bridge to traffic before long-term repairs are finished. The letter, signed by FHA Division Administrator Vincent Mammano, is dated Aug. 9 and is addressed to Steve Heminger, head of the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee.
"We're happy to hear this," said Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, one of the three agencies that would have to sign off on the temporary fix. "This is meaningful new information, and it will be duly considered."
Rentschler said he was not sure when a final decision will be made. The MTC, California Department of Transportation and California Transportation Commission were scheduled to discuss the federal findings on Tuesday.
New Bay Bridge Could Open Earlier Than Expected After Feds OK Temporary Bolt Fix
The temporary fix involves installing steel plates in the area of the broken bolts to help prevent movement during an earthquake. It would be in place while long-term repairs occurred. Those repairs involve the installation of a steel saddle that would replace the clinching function of the failed bolts.
Installation of the plates for the temporary fix would likely not take more than a day, Rentschler said.
The cracked bolts were discovered in March after they were tightened. They secure earthquake shock absorbers to the deck of the bridge. Officials said last month that repairing the cracks would take contractors until at least December, pushing back the bridge's opening. The idea for the temporary fix surfaced days later.
The $6.4 billion bridge project was undertaken because the existing eastern span, built in the 1930s, was not considered earthquake-safe. It was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. But even before the bolts cracked, it had experienced years of cost overruns and construction and design delays.
Phil Matier: Temporary Bay Bridge Fix
Though the bridge would not be complete with the temporary fix, it would still be safer than the current eastern span, Rentschler said.
"The goal of this project from the beginning is to find a safe alternative to what we know is a bridge that's vulnerable to earthquakes," he said.
But Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a civil engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley and longtime critic of the bridge project, disagreed, saying opening before the long-term repairs are complete would be unsafe. That's because only those repairs would make up for the loss of a critical device called a "shear key" that was compromised when the bolts failed, he said. The shear key is designed to resist lateral motion of an earthquake.
"It can do more harm to the bridge if an earthquake hits than good," he said. "I'm surprised the Federal Highway Administration approved this."
Meanwhile, Caltrans tested thousands of lights on the new Bay Bridge on Tuesday night. The new bridge features more than 48,000 LED's, that were designed specifically for the span.
Caltrans Shows Off Unique Lighting System For New Bay Bridge
"These are unique lights. They are not on any other project, any other street, facility anywhere," said senior construction engineer Bill Shedd.
He said drivers will notice a difference once they're on the new bridge. "Most of all, it's a very uniform brightness across the driving surface."
(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
