San-Fran bridge closed after rod snaps

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

Despite repair works back in September, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has once again been closed after a rod and a metal brace, erected when a crack was found in the bridge during a seismic upgrade, snapped causing two drivers to crash into falling debris.

The Department of Transportation has indefinitely closed the bridge to under take emergency work on the bridge that carries 260,000 vehicles a day between the two sides of the bay.

'Significant crack'

The rod was part of the emergency repair work done back on Labor Day, and held in place a 'saddle-like' cap that was placed over the crack on a link that was discovered a few months ago during earthquake upgrades. Then, the crack was described as 'significant' and cause enough to 'close the bridge on its own'. The bridge had already been closed for the long holiday weekend, and state transportation officials initially feared the crack would prevent them from reopening in time for the start of the work week.

The damaged ink was part of a network of eight similar pieces that are about 2 inches thick, and was cracked halfway through. The unexpected work only ended up taking a few extra hours, but yesterday's incident has raised concerns over how thorough it was. The rod, holding the cap in place, snapped bringing down with it a steel patch roughly 3 feet long.

"If you look at the totality of the circumstances - you've got the 5:30 commute, you have a 5,000-pound piece of steel falling out of the sky. We are so fortunate that no one was injured or killed," CHP Sgt. Trent Cross told AP.

Closed until further notice

Although the California Department of Transportation has not commented on the accident or why the repair work failed, they have issued a statement saying that "structural engineers and inspectors are on-site to assess the damage and will make a determination as to how long repairs will take."

"At this time, the bridge is closed until further notice," the statement said.

It will be a hug blow to the bridge's retrofit, that has already cost USD$6 billion from the delays in September. It is also expected to cause nightmares for commuters in the San Francisco bay area.

A 50ft section of the 73-year old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge famously collapsed during the devastating earthquake of 1989. The upgrades in September were designed to ensure that should another earthquake strike the region, the bridge will hold preventing a potentially huge loss of life.

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