Despite announcing that the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge would not open until Wednesday morning at 5 AM, 24 hours later than originally scheduled because of a crack in a support link found over the weekend, the Bay Bridge re-opened only hours later than the original time.
The crack in the support link, found when authorities took the time to do a top-to-bottom inspection while the Bay Bridge was closed for a pre-planned seismic retrofit, was quickly repaired with a custom-made custom-made steel saddle, which acts like a brace around a person's knee, around the link to redistribute stress away from the area. That will be attached to another saddle, set lower down the Bay Bridge span with steel tie rods.
The original closure began Thursday night, and was scheduled to end Tuesday at 5 AM. The 73-year-old Bay Bridge is crossed by more than 260,000 cars and trucks a day. The original shutdown was an already ambitious replacement of a 300-foot section of the bridge, and connection to a new S-curved detour.
Authorities said that the Bay Bridge crack was not enough to present a danger to drivers, as the other seven links could hold the additional stress. However, they added that the discovery of the crack is enough to keep the bridge closed indefinitely, if not repaired.
The Bay Bridge reopened at 6:30 AM PDT this morning. Cars led by an escort of California Highway Patrol vehicles began crossing less than two hours after the reopening time that Caltrans originally set when it closed the bridge Thursday evening, well ahead of the 5 AM Wednesday reopening that Caltrans scheduled late Monday.
Commuters in the SF Bay Area had already prepared for a long, complex commute today, so although it came later than first expected, the re-opening of the Bay Bridge is welcome news.
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