Tom Warne Report, 26 May 2013
SAN FRANCISCO – The rising cost of the $6.5 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge could skyrocket with the discovery of cable problems in addition to the bolt and rod issues previously detected. New concerns have surfaced on the skyway approach to the suspension span, where rain and other moisture leaked into ducts where steel tendons run through the sections to strengthen the span. Rust was detected on those steel tendons.
In a Sacramento Bee story published Sunday, a U.C. Berkeley professor of engineering discussed some of those concerns. After examining the Caltrans study of the discovery of the problem a few years ago, and related materials and said he believes Caltrans misinterpreted its own data.
“You can conduct tests to show that there’s not a problem, or that it’s not as bad as it seems,” Devine said. “They did the tests that were the least sensitive to the presence of the pits, and lo and behold, the test says that there is no problem.”
A Bay Bridge spokesperson said the problem is not new, it was discovered in 2008 when the section of the bridge was built. He said the problem was solved at that time by engineers and contractors for the rust problem, and that the design of that bridge allows for continued strength, even with some rust on some steel tendons.
“We have 10 percent more than would be necessarily required,” Bay Bridge spokesperson Andrew Gordon said. “Of that, say 110 percent, only 1.5 percent were affected. And of that 1.5 percent, they lost only about five percent of their strength.”
