I had my bluetooth headphones on as I was at the gym this morning, and I got a text message just before 7am. It's not really a common occurrence, so I go over and check it out. And sure enough, it was the alert-sf message announcing that the Bay Bridge had reopened at 7am.
Cars led by a phalanx of California Highway Patrol officers began crossing less than two hours after the reopening time that Caltrans originally set when it closed the bridge Thursday evening to remove a section of the eastern span and install a temporary detour. And traffic resumed well ahead of the 5 a.m. Wednesday reopening that Caltrans scheduled Monday, after the crack in the steel link, called an eyebar, had been discovered over the weekend.
"Through the night, the crews have worked nonstop - for almost 70 hours - and were able to complete repair work on the damaged eyebar beam," Caltrans Director Randy Iwasaki said at a hastily called news conference on Yerba Buena Island at 6:10 a.m. "The bridge has been inspected, and it's safer than it was when we closed it." (SF Gate 9/8/09)
Sometimes you just luck into something, and that appears to be the case here. Had this inspection taken place some other time, the Bridge would have had to be shut down immediately to be repaired. The crews were able to make the fix while the detour was being installed, so really, we only lost a few additional hours.
However, given that CalTrans had stated that the Bridge was going to be closed all day, BART is still vastly overcrowded as are the other various bridges across the Bay. Apparently the San Mateo Bridge had extended delays this morning.
Nonetheless, thanks to the CalTrans crews who made the process relatively smooth this weekend.
Inspectors discovered a crack in a crucial component of the east span of the Bay Bridge on Saturday that could jeopardize the planned Tuesday morning reopening of the bridge. The flaw was found in a chainlike steel link that helps hold up the eastern portion of the bridge. The link is almost 2 inches thick and was cracked halfway through, said Ken Brown, senior bridge engineer.
"The crack is significant enough to have closed the bridge on its own," Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney announced at a news briefing late Saturday night. "We have to make this repair before we reopen the bridge." (SF Chronicle 9/6/09)
We should hear more about the details of the repairs today and into tomorrow. If it's not open, there will be some very upset commuters Tuesday morning as thousands of people count on the Bay Bridge to get where they need to be. While it's better safe than sorry, the local economy sure didn't need extra inconveniences.
While San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom stepped up, others ducked. The lapse of time between the Cosco Busan oil spill being declared a "42 gallon spill" and a "58,000 gallon spill" isn't the only timeline scandal. I was at the joint command press conference later in the day where the fact it took 26 hours from the time of the collision until the Captain was tested for alcohol kept coming up. The snickers from the press (which included 18 TV cameras) made it clear that "he had left the ship" was an answer that begs many, many questions.
The press conference was at Fort Mason, following it I walked the two mile stretch of the Embarcadero down to where I took the first shots of it hitting SF yesterday. Everywhere, you could see it in the water. Accountability time.
So after hearing the news that a container ship ran into the Bay Bridge, I figured I'd go see if there was any visible damage. So on the way home from a meeting, I walked out Pier 7 in San Francisco. I was shocked at what I saw when I looked over the sides of the pier. Here are exclusive photos (sorry about quality, shot from my iPhone).
The story linked above said:
Coast Guard officials said fuel leaked from the gash at the port side of the bow for about half an hour before the Cosco Busan's crew managed to close off the damaged tank and transfer fuel to another part of the ship.
Rob Roberts, a lieutenant with the state Department of Fish and Game, said the 140 gallons of fuel that spilled from the ship will take about a month to clean up. By midday, some fuel had already reached Pier One in San Francisco.
He said the spill is "something we're worried about. . . . One hundred-forty gallons is 140 gallons too much." He said private companies hired by the ship owner will perform the cleanup.
So after hearing