(San Francisco) Bay Bridge to be closed through weekend as state toll revenue takes hit

[CreekDog]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Drivers will head into the weekend without the Bay Bridge, Caltrans said today, as workers continue to fine-tune and then test repairs to a brace that failed and fell onto the bridge deck earlier this week.

As has been the case since the two metal rods and a crossbar toppled onto the upper deck Tuesday evening, Caltrans would not give an estimate for when the bridge will reopen.
...
State coffers are feeling the pain.

Toll revenues from the area's seven state bridges plunged $335,000 on Wednesday compared with the previous Wednesday, according to John Goodwin of the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission.
...
Workers are continuing the adjust their repairs of steel rods and a crossbeam that came crashing down during the Tuesday evening commute. They spent the night custom fitting the rods to resist the vibrations that weakened parts installed to fix a brace that failed during a Labor Day weekend closure. The bridge was closed then to install a detour segment.

Caltrans said crews will work into the weekend. Independent inspectors, including the Federal Highway Administration and Seismic Safety Peer Review, will likely take hours to examine the finished repairs.

Predicting the reopening time was difficult because Caltrans did not know if the independent inspectors would ask for additional work.
...
Goodwin of the MTC said revenue was up on on the other Bay Area other state-run bridges — the Carquinez, Richmond-San Rafael, San Mateo, Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, and Dumbarton — was up.

BART commuters packed the extra-long trains crossing beneath the Bay, as they have for the past three days.
...


Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13676385

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I feel a little claustrophobic when the main bridge is out and the other two impossibly crowded because of that.



San Mateo Bridge (picking up the slack from the closed Bay Bridge):


The empty toll plaza at the Oakland entrance to the Bay Bridge:


The busiest toll bridge in the country sits empty:


No cars on the western span of the Bay Bridge, an eerie sight:

[taterguy]

1. You damn Californians and your need for instant gratification

Oh Noes! A road closed for an entire weekend.

Gonna be three months before they re-open the section of I-40 that was wrecked by a mudslide at the NC / Tennessee border.

Drunken rant off

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. I always felt trapped living there.

Between the chronic slowdowns on the bridges, and the already over saturated freeways, I felt like a sitting duck. Post 9-11 did not help with that feeling.
We finally moved in '05.
Just what we paid for tolls, gas, parking and insurance a month covers our new low low low mortgage.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Not surprising.

They can't afford to screw it up again after this embarrassment.

There goes my weekend plans. We had friends coming over from the city and I doubt they'll want to take BART or drive around.

[CreekDog]

5. Riding BART on Halloween is a blast

hilarious and being on a Saturday night with the bridge out, it should be a hoot.

[sasquatch]

9. Except if you get executed by a police officer in a bad mood

[CreekDog]

11. No, no, that's on New Year's

not Halloween.

and BART cops are known for staying off the trains, they ride in their police cruisers instead. if you are on a train, you are not likely to see any officers on your train in case you are worried.

[XemaSab]

4. Penny wise, pound foolish

Just watch: the state will reopen the bridge prematurely, something even worse is going to happen, people are going to die, and the state will shell out more money in settlement than they would have received in tolls.

[Brother Buzz]

6. The western span of the Bay Bridge is still servicing Treasure and Yerba Buena Islands

People reside on Treasure island.

[CreekDog]

7. It is but it's basically empty

you rarely see a car from there even though a fair amount of people live there.

[Auggie]

8. Ironic -- toll increases for all S.F. Bay bridges about to be debated*

*(except the Golden Gate Bridge)

Proposals include a surcharge based on time of day, day of week (extra for weekends), and weigh to vehicles. Heard it discussed on Talk Radio this afternoon. Here's a published link:

(10-15) 09:35 PDT -- Motorists may pay $1 more to cross the Bay Area's state-owned toll bridges and get hit with an extra surcharge if they drive over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco during rush hour, under a scenario unveiled Wednesday by regional transportation officials.

In addition, carpoolers may lose their free passage over the state bridges and tolls for truckers could more than double.

The toll on the seven state-owned bridges in the Bay Area now costs $4. The Golden Gate Bridge, run by a separate district, charges $6 and will not raise its fees.

The proposals were presented for the first time Wednesday to the Bay Area Toll Authority commission, a regional transportation panel that must determine how to pay for the overhaul of the Antioch and Dumbarton bridges to make them safer in an earthquake. Those two projects would cost a combined $750 million.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/1...

[KamaAina]

10. The pic of the San Mateo makes me wonder

if they could contraflow it (cone off one of the non-peak-direction lanes and reverse it; a common practice in Hawai'i even on surface streets) for the duration.

Caltrans lurkers: You may PayPal the six-figure consulting fee for the above to "@BayAreaBadass". (the "badass" moniker was just bestowed upon me by one of my all-time faves)

edit: Contraflow was also used in La. during the successful (for those with cars, anyway) evacuations from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. No coning involved; the entire highway became one-way out of the danger zone.

[CreekDog]

12. they did some contra-flow at the interchange from 92 (SM Bridge) to 880

turning one of the exits into an onramp so that there were more lanes from 92 to 880.

for what it's worth, the Golden Gate Bridge's lanes are adjustable so they've been doing 4 lanes in one direction / 2 in the other at busy times to accomodate, however, the traffic is just backing up onto 101 in Marin (a parking lot) or back into SF.