SF Bay Bridge closed Aug 28 to Sept 3

This is why there are so many engineer jokes.

as far as the bridge workers working on a holiday weekend, the whole operation is under a contract, so the builder has to absorb any additional overtime/holiday pay costs incurred, not the state.

Actually the contractor will be ecstatic to complete the job this weekend they probably already had planned to complete over a weekend so the labor cost was boiled in anyway. He stands to make something like $20 million for bringing the project in early. :E:E .

elkhorn98 wrote:
The Bay Bridge is probably one of the busiest bridges in the country during normal work days. So labor day weekend is the best time to do it. And everything I have heard (and it's on the local news every night) is the issue was not the steel from China but the bolts made in the USA.

You missed the union placed billboards complaining about the fact the bridge was fabricated in China then; of course, they disappeared when the bolts failed.

Yes, the bolts that shattered was made in the good ol' USA, to Caltrans specs.. which was then found to be totally wrong, after installation.

The Bay Bridge is probably one of the busiest bridges in the country during normal work days. So labor day weekend is the best time to do it. And everything I have heard (and it's on the local news every night) is the issue was not the steel from China but the bolts made in the USA.

for one thing, as far as the bridge workers working on a holiday weekend, the whole operation is under a contract, so the builder has to absorb any additional overtime/holiday pay costs incurred, not the state.

some of the other things have been answered by others.

Thank you. Nice to know the details from someone familiar with the problem.

fj12ryder wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

bikendan wrote:
i just love some of the out-of-staters' uninformed/incorrect comments!:S

Please elaborate, some of us would like to know about the misinformation. Feel free to enlighten and inform.

What are these "uninformed/incorrect comments"? If I'm reading wrong information I would like to know. Or are you just venting?

Sure, since I live in the SF Bay area and will be badly affected by this closure..

1) It's not 36" diameter pins, they are bolts that are 3-6ft long, and they were not pounded in and then concreted, they was placed to hold down a shear key, and then the road bed was placed above it.

They did not break until they went to tighten them. They failed from a process called hydrogen enbrittlement, where hydrogen (from sitting in water) gets into the metal and causes the bolt/rod to be too brittle.

2) Labor day weekend is normally the lowest traffic day over the bridge in SF, since so many people are on vacation. They need 5 days this time to re-align the traffic ways on and off the new section of the bridge. I'm wondering how many accidents in the first week or so there will be.

3) The whole process (ie, Chinese steel was $500 million cheaper than US Steel; it really couldn't be fabricated in US (lost industrials area), the cost just went up.. and up.. and up.. delays after delays occurred; City mayors interfering with the whole process, Engineers arguing over just how safe the whole thing (way more safer than the old bridge whose foundations are in 300ft of mud!)

I read/watch about this in the news everyday, and I just want the new section open and the old section torn down.

fj12ryder wrote:

bikendan wrote:
i just love some of the out-of-staters' uninformed/incorrect comments!:S

Please elaborate, some of us would like to know about the misinformation. Feel free to enlighten and inform.

What are these "uninformed/incorrect comments"? If I'm reading wrong information I would like to know. Or are you just venting?

Moved to Roads and Routes from General RVing

Actually Labor Day weekend is a lower traffic weekend than most which is why they picked this weekend. They have closed the bridge over Labor Day previously but this will be a 5 day closure starting Wednesday night and reopening Tuesday. I think the next opportunity wouldn't be until February. They wouldn't dare close it during commute days - that would really be nuts :E