Bay Bridge Closure

[Retep Molinari 68]

For those of you that don't know, the San Francisco-Oakland bay Bridge is broken and closed--again.

Here are some awesome pics of one of the world's buiest bridges closed & empty.

http://sfist.com/2009/10/28/phoots_day_without_a_bay_bridge.php?gallery0Pic=2#gallery

And here is a piece from an AP article on the Bridge. I think it's far past time American begins to reinvest, because:

Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a civil engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has spent 20 years studying the Bay Bridge, called the initial crack a "warning sign" of potentially bigger safety issues with the bridge.

"The repair they were doing was really a Band-Aid," said Astaneh-Asl, who criticized Caltrans at the time for rushing to reopen the bridge.

Astaneh-Asl said the failure of the repair job demonstrates the need for a longer-term solution. The age and design of the bridge make it susceptible to collapse, especially if commercial tractor-trailers are allowed to continue using it, he said.

"I think Caltrans is putting public relations ahead of public safety," he said.

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091028/ap_on_re_us/us_bay_bridge_closure

[ChaosInAMinor 0]

What's really cool is the cooperation of the public transit out here (I live in SF). BART is running all night instead of shutting down at 1 am- to the East Bay anyway. And there are ferries. The other bridges in the area are really getting congested now, though. Both the Richmond Bridge and Golden Gate bridge to the north and the San Mateo bridge to the south are super backed up. On the other hand, it encourages people not to drive their cars over here, so traffic hasn't been as horrendous as it usually is.

But, I agree. It's a 75 year old bridge- you can't just slap a quick fix onto it and hope it doesn't snap. They're really lucky it was only one supporting cable and it only hit three cars and nobody got hurt.

[Raysfan16 5]

This type of thing shows you what your city (or region in this case) is really made of. A city down here in Florida would turn into a snarling chaosville if say, the Sunshine Skyway went down for repair. Glad to see the Bay Area region has a lot of public transit, I bet those ferry operators are bathing in cash right now.

[Larks2242 251]

Wow i have no idea what anyone would do if the MacArthur Causeway or Rickenbacker Causeway was closed. People would end up going crazy

[nofunk 1,935]

1) Those photos are AMAZING!!

2) While I'm sure the closure of the bridge is causing head aches, I also agree with Raysfan16 above. It's amazing the difference good coordination and a robust public transportation system can make.

[Retep Molinari 68]

ChaosInAMinor: yeah, I live there too. And I was really impressed! Though I think ferry service should have gone up like it did after the 1989 earthquake. BART already runs near capacity everyday.

Raysfan16: Yeah, we believe in stuff like public works here. We just don't believe in property taxes to pay for it. I hate prop 13!

"Isn't 'tax and spend' better than 'not tax and spend?'" Bill Maher

Anyway---

You know what really impressed me? One of the world's busiest bridges closed--and everything was fine? What does this say about the need and efficiency of cars? The two BART tracks under the bay can handle as much as 12 lanes on the Bay Bridge! I think that this was a real showing of the impracticality of private transit.

[emgmod 16]

This reminds me of the day when an important stretch of the H-1 in Hawaii was closed. The only difference is that we don't have a rail system, meaning anyone living around that section had to wait for hours to get to their homes.