San Francisco's Bay Bridge closed indefinitely due to fallen debris

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San Francisco's Bay Bridge closed indefinitely due to fallen debris
Nick Valencia, CNN
October 28, 2009 3:31 a.m. EDT
CNN

A piece of steel and cable fell from San Francisco's Bay Bridge on Tuesday.

San Francisco's Bay Bridge was shut down Tuesday and was expected to stay closed indefinitely after a piece of the bridge fell onto the roadway, the California Highway Patrol said.

The piece of steel and cable that fell from overhead initially caused a minor car accident, which backed up traffic for miles, said CHP Officer Peter Van Eckhardt. No one was injured in the accident.

That section of the bridge, which had recently been repaired, will be reinspected before the span reopens, officials said.

All eastbound and westbound lanes were shut down at 8 p.m. PT Tuesday, Van Eckhardt said.

Public transit agencies throughout the Bay Area were told to brace for an expected increase in ridership Wednesday, the officer added.

About 280,000 vehicles cross the Bay Bridge every day, according to the California Department of Transportation.

A 50-foot section of the bridge collapsed in 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, killing one person, prompting efforts to make it quake-tolerant.

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Bay Bridge closure hits Calif. commuters
Snapped cable shuts landmark which carries 260,000 vehicles daily
Oct 28, 2009
AP

Image: San Francisco's Bay Bridge
A snapped cable and a piece of metal roughly 3 feet long fell onto the Bay Bridge's westbound lanes on Tuesday night, officials said.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images file


SAN FRANCISCO - Commuters were expected to face a traffic nightmare Wednesday after authorities closed a major bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland to evaluate damage caused a cable on its upper deck snapped.

No injuries were reported but at least one vehicle was damaged in Tuesday's incident on the Bay Bridge, California Highway Patrol Officer Peter Van Eckhardt said.

The bridge, a California landmark that carries about 260,000 vehicles a day, was expected to be closed for at least 24 hours as crews worked to repair the broken cable.

The cable and a piece of metal roughly 3 feet long fell onto the bridge's westbound lanes at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Van Eckhardt said.

The eastbound lanes were closed to traffic at about 8 p.m. The westbound lanes were shut down a short while later as officers worked to get the remaining cars off the span.

The cable snapped near the same section of bridge where a big rig crashed earlier this month. The Oct. 14 wreck jammed traffic for hours during the evening commute. Authorities say the truck was going too fast when it crashed and overturned. The wreck happened on the recently opened "S-curve," part of a project to replace the bridge's seismically unsafe eastern span.

Extra trains
Caltrans crews arrived at the scene late Tuesday to begin work on the snapped cable.

The California Highway Patrol was alerting Bay Area transit operators about the closure so they could try to prepare for a crush of additional passengers Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District said the district would be bringing in extra trains and train operators for the morning commute.

The 73-year-old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was closed over the Labor Day weekend so a football-field-sized, 3,300-ton section of the eastern span could be cut out and replaced with a new double-deck section.

The work was part of a seismic upgrade and had to be completed 150 feet above the ground.

When crews weren't able to fix the crack that was discovered in the span during the Labor Day weekend project, it delayed the bridge's scheduled reopening, jamming traffic as commuters tried to take alternate routes.