San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Closed After Rod Snaps.

The AP (10/28, Leff, Marshall) reports, "Authorities on Tuesday indefinitely closed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge after a rod and a metal brace erected last month during an emergency repair job fell onto the bridge's westbound lanes, startling a pair of drivers who collided with the debris and leaving hundreds of others stranded in their cars during the evening commute." The emergency repair was undertaken after "the crack was discovered over the Labor Day weekend while long-planned earthquake safety upgrades were being made to the 73-year-old bridge." California Department of Transportation "issued a brief statement saying only that 'structural engineers and inspectors are onsite to assess the damage and will make a determination as to how long repairs will take.'" UC Berkeley civil engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl "called the initial crack a 'warning sign' of potentially bigger safety issues with the bridge." Astaneh-Asl added that "the failure of the repair job demonstrates the need for a longer-term solution."

The San Francisco Chronicle (10/28, Cabanatuan, Berton) reports, "Caltrans engineers said then that there were enough safeguards in the bridge design that the crack could not have led to the bridge collapsing." During the emergency repairs, "crews wrapped a steel brace around the broken beam to redistribute tension away from the damaged area. That brace was then attached to another one set lower on the span using steel rods."

S.F. bridge failure stirs fear, anger over new span