Bay Bridge Closed After Repair Falls Apart

• bridges
• engineering
• infrastructure
• transportation
• California
• San Francisco Chronicle

Three pieces of an emergency repair to the Bay Bridge's cantilever section made over Labor Day weekend snapped and crashed onto the upper deck of the span late Tuesday afternoon, striking three vehicles and forcing the indefinite closure of the region's busiest bridge.

Caltrans officials ordered the closure of the bridge in both directions shortly after 7 p.m. and said late Tuesday night that it would be closed indefinitely. Residents of Treasure Island were being allowed access from the San Francisco end of the bridge.

The pieces that snapped were two high-strength steel rods and a crossbeam from a steel saddle, said Tony Anziano, Caltrans toll bridge program manager. Those parts were installed over Labor Day weekend during a repair job that delayed the reopening of the bridge following scheduled work.

"It's way too early to say" what happened, Anziano said. "We have to take a careful look at it."

The pieces crashed across the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge's eastern span, east of Yerba Buena Island, about 5:30 p.m., according to CHP Officer Peter Van Eckhardt. They hit three vehicles, but miraculously, nobody was seriously injured.

The incident caused the CHP to immediately close three lanes of the upper deck, promptly snarling traffic across the eastern span. Within hours, authorities began clearing traffic from both decks of the bridge, preparing it for a full closure so that engineers could inspect the damage.

"We're dealing with some high winds, and it's dark out there," said Bart Ney, a Caltrans spokesman. "We want to be as safe and as thorough as possible."

With an extended closure of the Bay Area's busiest bridge possible, Bay Area transportation officials were preparing contingency plans.

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