Bay Bridge to be repaired for the long term

The repair will entail cutting and removing about 12 ft of the cracked eyebar and replacing it with new steel that will be spliced into what is left of the existing eyebar. Caltrans came up with the idea for the fix, with input coming from the joint venture of American Bridge-Fluor, which is the prime contractor for the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

The repair will be executed during nighttime hours so as not to disturb peak-hour traffic. The lanes (three on the upper deck and one on the lower deck) will be closed no earlier than 10 p.m. and will be reopened no later than 5 a.m. on the weekdays for the upper deck. The lower deck will remained closed until 7 a.m. For the weekends, lanes will be closed no earlier than 12 a.m. and will return to service no later than 7 a.m. It will take approximately three weeks to execute the repair, and Caltrans said another five weeks might be necessary at a later date.

“This is the right fix and a long-term one that should keep the 73-year-old bridge safer until it is replaced,” Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney told Engineering News-Record.