After years to delays, disputes and political wrangling, the agencies overseeing the construction of the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge dared to start talking about a celebration to mark the opening of the span.
The party atmosphere lasted but a few weeks. In March, engineers found that 32 long threaded rods called bolts had cracked when tightened down. The party was off. Now experts are wondering if there is a fix or “retrofit” and if so how costly and how time-consuming. The bridge, damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, has had a cloud of doom hanging over it that nothing seems to dispel.
In Tuesday’s Open Forum, Steve Heminger, who chairs the three-agency committee tasked by the state to keep the bridge project moving and fights among engineers, unions and contractors under control, lays out the plan to ensure the bridge is safe, and the bolts are providing the ties and stability as designed. You can read his Open Forum here.
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