Work on Richmond-San Rafael Bridge might take as long as three months
RICHMOND >> As gray skies last week gave way to blue, crews got to work putting in a permanent fix for the RichmondSan Rafael Bridge.
The bridge closed briefly last month after a joint cracked and sent footballsized chunks of concrete tumbling down onto motorists. No injuries were reported.
Workers will replace all 61 expansion joints on the bridge, Tony Tavares, the head of Caltrans’ Bay Area division, said Monday. Those joints, which are all from the original 1958 construction, allow the bridge to expand and contract with changing temperatures.
The $8 million project to replace 31 joints on the upper level is expected to take between two to three months, he said. Each joint takes roughly four days to replace, said Ken
Brown, Caltrans’ office chief for maintenance and investigation of toll bridges, and crews are expected to replace three joints per week.
The new joints are a much simpler design that are easier to maintain, Brown said. And, they’re more flexible and stronger than the old ones, Tavares added.
The remaining joints on the lower deck will involve an additional cost and will be replaced in early 2020 as part of other planned maintenance work, he said.
Historically, there have been problems with joints on the bridge, nearly 800 of which were replaced between 2004 and 2006 after holes in the concrete started cropping up. It is likely that normal wear and tear is to blame for the cracked joint, Brown said.
As heavy trucks rumble by, the bridge vibrates below it. And the heavier the truck, the more it shakes.