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.
on BART from N. Berkeley at my usual time this morning, 7:50am. Can’t say about other stations.
Recent weeks of (Fed funded) repaving in parking lot tightened parking somewhat + they eliminated some slots altogether, but neither loss has actually impacted me. Parking’s been fine.
The parking lot didn’t really need repaving imo, but that’s what we got for stimulous, some unnecessary asphalt.
The depression and State worker furloughs have made BART a breeze all year.
In years past, if I wasn’t there by 7:25am all the spaces would be gone and I’d end up driving. The 2000 thousand recession likewise freed up parking, but it was nothing like 2009. The state of the economy is very clear from the N. Berkeley BART Sta.
State workers on the job, non-stop for over 70 hours when the rest of us were enjoying the alst long holiday weekend, and fixing the cracked eye-bolt. Our tax dollars at work and well worth it. Hat’s off to you, State workers!