The Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC) today said that the previously scheduled Labor Day (2 Sep) opening of the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has been postponed.
News of the delayed opening was announced at the same time as TBPOC released its investigative report into the 32 bolts that broke on the Bay Bridge in March 2013, and its review of other bolts on the bridge.
The contractor now forecasts that the steel saddle retrofit of the failed bolts on the east pier will be completed by 10 December 2013. TBPOC will select a bridge opening date based upon actual completion of the east pier retrofit work, weather windows, traffic impacts and other information as it becomes available. The bridge opening may or may not coincide with a Monday holiday weekend and may involve shorter advance notice to the public than prior closures.
A four-day full closure of the existing bridge is said to be necessary to complete construction work at the Oakland touchdown and Yerba Buena Island tunnel in order to transition traffic from the old span to the new one.
The TBPOC’s final investigative report lays out at length the chronology of events and assigns proper responsibility as warranted. The findings, and all other information contained in the report, can be found at websites for the Bay Bridge,5246 Caltrans and the 7419 Metropolitan Transportation Commission. In addition to the report, thousands of additional pages of documentation and records have also been posted on those websites.
There will be a public briefing at a special meeting of the Bay Area Toll Authority on July 10 at 10am at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission offices at 101 8th Street in Oakland, where a discussion will take place and questions from the public, elected officials and the media will be answered by members of the TBPOC and by members of the Seismic Safety Peer Review Panel.
The meeting will be audio-cast online at: <%$Linker:2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal http://www.mtc.ca.gov/meetings/schedule/ http://www.mtc.ca.gov/meetings/schedule/#sthash.xyefTJfV.dpuf false http://www.mtc.ca.gov/meetings/schedule/#sthash.xyefTJfV.dpuf false false %>
News of the delayed opening was announced at the same time as TBPOC released its investigative report into the 32 bolts that broke on the Bay Bridge in March 2013, and its review of other bolts on the bridge.
The contractor now forecasts that the steel saddle retrofit of the failed bolts on the east pier will be completed by 10 December 2013. TBPOC will select a bridge opening date based upon actual completion of the east pier retrofit work, weather windows, traffic impacts and other information as it becomes available. The bridge opening may or may not coincide with a Monday holiday weekend and may involve shorter advance notice to the public than prior closures.
A four-day full closure of the existing bridge is said to be necessary to complete construction work at the Oakland touchdown and Yerba Buena Island tunnel in order to transition traffic from the old span to the new one.
The TBPOC’s final investigative report lays out at length the chronology of events and assigns proper responsibility as warranted. The findings, and all other information contained in the report, can be found at websites for the Bay Bridge,
There will be a public briefing at a special meeting of the Bay Area Toll Authority on July 10 at 10am at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission offices at 101 8th Street in Oakland, where a discussion will take place and questions from the public, elected officials and the media will be answered by members of the TBPOC and by members of the Seismic Safety Peer Review Panel.
The meeting will be audio-cast online at: <%$Linker:
