Failure™ Magazine

Crack discovered in Bay Bridge

Written by Jason Zasky  as part of Failure Analysis

On Saturday bridge inspectors discovered a crack in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an inch-long fissure “significant enough to have closed the bridge on its own,” said Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney during a news conference late Saturday night. “We have to make this repair before we re-open the bridge,” emphasized Ney.

The 73-year-old bridge has been closed since Thursday September 3, when a scheduled seismic upgrade project got underway. Engineers used the total shutdown to conduct a thorough inspection of the structure (which was last inspected in 2007), hence the discovery of the new problem.

Caltrans says the flaw is in an eyebar on the eastern side of the bridge—up high—and plays critical role in holding up the structure.

This unexpected development is bad news for Bay Area commuters, as the additional repairs could threaten the planned re-opening of the bridge, which is scheduled for 5 a.m. Tuesday September 8. The good news is that when the bridge does re-open, it will be safer than when it was closed, according to Ney.

Approximately 260,000 cars and trucks cross the Bay Bridge every day.

Countdown to reopening