The San Francisco Bay Bridge will reopen today after being shut down for nearly a week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"Things have gone very well overnight," Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney told the Chronicle at a briefing early today. "We completed a lot of the work that we needed to do. It does look like now that we're going to get the bridge open today."
Overnight, crews were able to "get the geometry" in place with respect to key parts on the bridge and conduct stress tests on a cracked beam, Ney said. "What changed is we got the steel into alignment, so we were able to go forward with the stressing."
The bridge was shut down October 27, the Chronicle reported. High winds and heavy traffic loosened a pair of tie-rods and a steel bracket that was installed Labor Day weekend. The 5,000-pound assembly crashed onto the upper deck, totaling three cars during the evening commute.
Ney told Mercury news that workers have completed nearly all phases of the repairs and the first series of vibration tests performed early Monday yielded satisfactory results.
Commuters will still have to use alternate means to get across San Francisco Bay for the sixth morning, the Chronicle reported.
