Bay Bridge Closed

[TN TITAN Fan In STL]

Authorities on Tuesday closed a major bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland after a cable on its upper deck snapped during the evening commute.

No injuries were reported. But one person was shaken up, and at least one vehicle was damaged in the incident, said California Highway Patrol Officer Peter Van Eckhardt.

The bridge, a California landmark that carries about 260,000 vehicles a day, was expected to be closed for at least 24 hours as crews worked to repair the broken cable.

The cable and a piece of metal roughly 3 feet long fell onto the bridge's westbound lanes at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Van Eckhardt said.

The eastbound lanes were closed to traffic at about 8 p.m. The westbound lanes were shut down a short while later as officers worked to get the remaining cars off the span.

The cable snapped near the same section of bridge where a big rig crashed earlier this month. The Oct. 14 wreck jammed traffic for hours during the evening commute. Authorities say the truck was going too fast when it crashed and overturned. The wreck happened on the recently opened "S-curve," part of a project to replace the bridge's seismically unsafe eastern span.

Caltrans crews arrived at the scene late Tuesday to begin work on the snapped cable.

The bridge closure was expected to cause a traffic nightmare during the morning commute. The California Highway Patrol was alerting Bay Area transit operators about the closure so they could try to prepare for a crush of additional passengers Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District said the district would be bringing in extra trains and train operators for the morning commute.

The 73-year-old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was closed over the Labor Day weekend so a football-field-sized, 3,300-ton section of the eastern span could be cut out and replaced with a new double-deck section.

The work was part of a seismic upgrade and had to be completed 150 feet above the ground.

When crews weren't able to fix the crack that was discovered in the span during the Labor Day weekend project, it delayed the bridge's scheduled reopening, jamming traffic as commuters tried to take alternate routes.

[smitch124]

Man is that gonna be one fukked up commute this morning...

[dhunter]

fuk...that means more people going over the golden gate

[smitch124]

I can't believe the bridge is still closed

[THE_ROOKIEEE]

Sux for commuters....good thing bart is available .... Still sux when you cant get a seat going out to east bay at 5pm from downtown...

BAY BRIDGE SUPPOSE TO OPEN BY 10 AM THIS MORNING

[Sweetleaf22]

I really feel for ya man, hope you have some good radio stations or am sports talk shows to pass the time in stand still traffic,How long will it be down, arent they buildin a new bay bridge right next to it?, feel free to vent some more.

I know how it is with the bridges, a total of 446 bridges are in the city of Pittsburgh, offically the city with the most bridges in the world, three more than former world leader Venice, Italy.

But its the tunnels here that cause all the traffic heaches. So now they build a tunnel from downtown under the river to the otherside , and it pops up right between PNC park and Hienz field

How long is your commute now?

[smitch124]

Now a truck plummets off the deck of the bridge 200 feet onto Yerba Buena Island:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BAAE1AHDO3.DTL

Another huge backup and a fatility....I think I might swim across the bay rather than take this bridge

[Pap]

TN TITAN Fan In STL always posts the most depressing news, fact