Repairs could be finished on time
Breaking rods lead to search for the best fixes
The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge could still open as scheduled over Labor Day weekend, but it will be at least three weeks before a final decision is made, transportation officials said Wednesday.
“We will not rush what we have to do,” Brian Maroney, Caltrans’ chief bridge engineer, said after a meeting in Oakland of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. “But there’s a probability we can do this (open on time) — there is a chance.’’
The $6.4 billion bridge has been dogged by problems associated with broken threaded rods that anchor structures intended to keep the span stable in an earthquake. Caltrans officials told commission members they were optimistic that workers could fix the problem in time for the span to open to traffic Sept. 3, the day after Labor Day.
The $10 million fix will involve making a steel saddle to sit atop the seismic-stability structures, acting as a substitute for the 96 rods that
Caltrans wrote off after 32 of them cracked when they were tightened in March.
But the safety of more than 2,000 additional threaded rods installed on the bridge has been called into question because they were made to similar specifications as the rods that cracked. Caltrans is performing tests to determine whether the additional rods are at risk of failing.
Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said he could not guarantee that the bridge would open on time, given the “volume of work’’ to be done. He said a decision may not be made until the commission’s meeting May 29.
Officials said some of the remaining rods could be replaced over time, after the bridge opens.
The Federal Highway Administration has agreed to conduct an “arm’s length” review of the repair work, Heminger said. The review, he said, will assure that “we’re getting to the right answers and we’re getting to the right solutions.’’
In a presentation to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty said the threaded rods were overly hard and susceptible to failure. He said the decision to use the rods had been made by a design specification team, which later added a requirement that the rods be treated to eliminate the chance that they could become too hard and vulnerable to being attacked by destructive hydrogen.
Dougherty said any replacement rods would be made with more restrictions to limit the problem. “In hindsight, these are the type of requirements we would be well served to have” on all the rods, he said.