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A bridge engineering expert told a Bay Area transportation panel Wednesday that a short-term fix could allow the new eastern span of the Bay
Bridge to open on schedule by Labor Day after all.
Frieder Seible’s comments surprised members of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Bay Area Toll Authority as well as transportation officials who are overseeing the $6.4 billion project to build the new span, which is aimed at being safer during an earthquake than the existing span built 77 years ago.
Seible’s proposal came only two days after those officials — MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger, Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty and
California Transportation Commission Executive Director Andre Boutros — announced that the bridge opening will have to be delayed until December to fix problems with failed anchor bolts on a pier along the new span just east of Yerba Buena Island.
Transportation officials learned in March that 32 of the 96 bolts installed on the pier had failed, popping out several inches after being tightened. They were manufactured in Ohio in 2008.
The bolts are holding in place seismic safety devices known as shear keys that help prevent swaying during an earthquake.
Transportation officials are addressing the problem by covering the broken rods with an exterior saddle and cable system that will be encased in concrete. Heminger said Wednesday that the repair work probably will cost about $20 million.
But Seible, a emeritus dean at the University of California at San Diego who chairs the Toll Bridge Program Seismic Safety Peer Review Panel, recommended Wednesday that transportation officials pursue a temporary fix that would use wedges or shims that would turn bearings into shear keys that would prevent movement during an earthquake.
“We could still achieve full seismic safety for the bridge and we could do it in a month,” Seible said.
He said it’s important to open the new span as soon as possible because there’s “little confidence” the existing span, which was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, could withstand even a moderate temblor.
“We don’t know when the next earthquake could occur,” Seible said, “It could occur any day.”
Several members of the Bay Area Toll Authority, which consists of local elected officials, said they’re in favor of exploring the temporary
fix.
Rohnert Park City Councilman Jake McKenzie, who represents Sonoma County, said, “If we can expedite the opening, I’m here to support it.”
After Wednesday’s three-hour hearing, Heminger told reporters at a briefing that he’d previously heard of the concept of using shims to turn bearings into shear keys but Wednesday was the first time he found out that Seible has prepared an engineering concept that can be implemented soon.
He said, “It merits vetting and will discern if it can happen soon.”
Dougherty said, “It’s a developing conversation that will be subjected to review and we’ll give it due diligence.”
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Ten years late and a six-fold increase in cost? Like the bolts, words fail me.
Mike
If the bridge is safer, take another year.
The over budget and over schedule on the bridge will seem like nothing compared to what is going to occur with the high speed rail project.
Liberalism as work. Like previously said, “the bridge will seem like nothing to what is going to occur with the hight speed rail project.”
If it is short term why not take longer time and develop a long term solution.
local,
You are exactly right with your comment that the Bay Bridge fiasco is nothing compared to what will occur with the high speed rail project. Moonbeam Brown is without a doubt the most incompetent California Governor of the 20th and 21st centuries. He turned Caltrans for the envy of the country to the laughing stock of the country, and they screw up most anything they are involved with. We are already seeing what a clown convention the high speed rail is even in its infancy, and it will be perhaps the biggest fiasco in U. S. history with the real potential of bankrupting California — all orchestrated by Moonbeam Brown at the behest of the unions.
The second biggest boondoggle public works project in the history of the United States is likely to be Moonbeam Brown’s delta tunnel project, which he is doing at the behest of the unions and the SoCal big money interests that want to steal more NorCal water.
This clown (he even views himself as a clown – just check out his portrait in the California Capitol from his first stint as Governor) is going to run for re-election. Let’s see if brain-dead California voters are stupid enough to re-elect him.
The question is… Will incentives have to be paid the contractors if the bridge opens in September and no incentives required if the bridge opens in December?
This bridge fiasco is a disaster on all counts. There are disasters waiting on several fronts re construction. I wonder who paid off whom?? Calendar should not be considered on any front. There sure as XXXX should not be ANY party at ANY time. Forget about ANY party. What kind of political whoxxx come up with this crap.
“”‘The contractors will receive an additional $20 million incentive payment if they reach a vaguely explained ‘readiness for seismic safety opening’ determination,’ said Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, in an interview.””
How much is this so-called expert receiving for coming to/publishing his conclusion/opinion? Whith the bridge already waaaay overbudget nobody should be giving anybody even more taxpayer dollars. Enough is enough!
As someone else mentioned, this fiasco is only a primer to determine how much pain can be inflicted upon taxpayers before they break. I guess these errors, omissions, and significant cost overruns will soften the public regarding The High Speed Rail, which is now significantly slower and less far-reaching than originally promised/sold to the public. The damage this HSR will inflict on both the current transporation infrastructure, including CAL-trains and airports, is yet to be determined but will certianly be devasting.
On a positive note the HSR will create 1000’s of union construction jobs while, unfortunately, eliminating many long term local jobs. Many of those Jobs will eventually re-appear in the form of BART type positions with overcompensated employees, 37 hour work weeks, ridiculous pensions and retirement at age 55, and double-time overtime for employees that work less than 8 hours in a given day or less than 40 hours in a given week. And they will strike if we don’t give them what they want regardless of how absurd their demands are.
Boondoggle, Patronage, Payback, Incompetents and incompetence, Affirmative Action, and a perfect storm of California politics. Taxpayers simply must pay closer attention to contracts and WHO gets them, and IF there are bids, PUBLIC unions, and the idiots who would even consider a party.
TAXPAYERS are sick of paying for crappy products, greedy unions, and dumb noisy public many of whom are NOT TAXPAYERS, another of our problems…largest welfare state transferring earnings of workers to non-workers.
Explains why my 25 yr old grandson just moved to Phoenix….because he would ‘never be able to buy a house in CA, and will NOT pay CA huge, punitive TAXES to support ‘social’ handouts. He worked and starting with JC put himself thru college Bus degree here, without loans, saved, and just bought a cheap house in Phoenix, low interest rate. For middle-class white guys with no ‘programs’ available, leaving CA is the only solution to create a life.
Perhaps we can get all those voting for opening the bridge, who think the new section is safe, to drive over it repeatedly for some period of time, led by the expert.
Great question! Here is what I found in the Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/15/5498474/incentives-for-bay-bridge-contractors.html
“‘The contractors will receive an additional $20 million incentive payment if they reach a vaguely explained ‘readiness for seismic safety opening’ determination,’ said Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, in an interview.”