The Red Monkey

Highway officials say they have determined wind and traffic vibrations caused a rod to crack on the Bay Bridge on Tuesday night, forcing an ongoing closure of the bridge.

The rod recently was added as part of a quick-fix Caltrans designed and commissioned during a Labor Day weekend bridge closure to complete other work. During that weekend, inspectors found a crack in the bridge’s east span and hurriedly designed and installed a series of rods and brackets, much like a splint, to ease stress on the cracked steel beam.

Officials said then that they believed the fix was solid and that the bridge was safe for reopening. Less than two months later, however, one of the rods snapped, pulling a second rod and other pieces of steel down onto the deck during commute hours.

“In retrospect, we should have done more isolation on those tie rods, so they wouldn’t have vibration issues that they had,” spokesman Bart Ney said today.

Ney said officials are rebuilding the fix but retrofitting it with crossbars to give the rods more stability. That work was slowed today by high winds.

Ney said Caltrans officials aren’t sure when they will reopen the bridge. It could be late today or Thursday morning, Ney said.

Federal Highway Administration officials are on site to review the cause and Caltrans’ repairs and offer technical assistance, a spokeswoman said.

The original Labor Day fix, done by C.C. Myers of Rancho Cordova, was completed quickly, and the design of the repair brackets and rods is unique. Ney said Caltrans has not determined that there were problems with Myers work. Today’s repairs are being done by another Sacramento-area company, MCM Construction of North Highlands. MCM crews were nearby and were first to respond to the scene Tuesday when Caltrans put out an urgent call.

Myers had crews in the area working on the new bridge that will replace the existing structure. Caltrans would have assigned those crews to work on the fix if MCM had not gotten there first, Ney said.

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Buzz up!

Call The Bee’s Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.

Traffic vibrations? Really, isn’t there a lot of that thing on the bridge and it could not withstand that? Remind me not to dive across that damn thing anytime soon.