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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSF: Rainwater Might Have Damaged Flawed Bay Bridge Bolts
California Transportation Department officials at a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday said that faulty bolts being used in the construction of a new span of the Bay Bridge might have been damaged by rainwater, reports KQED's Rachel Dornhelm.
They also said they can't promise the bridge will be ready for its scheduled Labor Day opening.
The bolts are intended to stabilize the bridge in the event of an earthquake. Earlier reports focused on the manufacturing process. In fact, some questions came up about the way the bolts were made by Dyson Corp. of Ohio, and hydrogen in the bolts appears to have made them brittle.
But engineers in the meeting raised a new possibility: The hydrogen could have come from rainwater gathering in the holes where the bolts sat after being installed. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/04/10/broken-bolts-could-result-from-bay-bridge-design-flaw/
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)Even faster when water is present.
BeyondGeography
(39,278 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)maximize profits from the deal by cutting corners.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)I remember reading about the spans being made in China, but an Ohio company cutting corners like this is inexcusable.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)And yet, there is no way to know if we are getting our monies worth. Supposedly so much was spent on the bridge so that in the event of a large earthquake, people would be safe, were they driving on the bridge at that point in time.
The only way we will know if we got our monies worth is after such an earthquake.But the fact that even the guldarn bolts have proven to be unreliable tends to show us this was a boondoggle.
Critics said early on: wouldn't we all be better off if that amount of money had just been put into the hospital monies, to help people with getting health care?
A HERETIC I AM
(24,320 posts)It's a brand new span, not the repairing of the old one.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)The SF Bay area in 2005 - couldn't remember if this was a total replacement or repair or whatever.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)Which was totally doable and would have done by now at a fraction of the cost.
I was pregnant during the '89 earthquake. My daughter is 23 now.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)the foundations are old timbers pounded into a couple hundred feet of bay mud.
not only that, retrofitting the old bridge would not allow it to stay open during construction as continually as it has.
and what is this "fraction of the cost", you think they were going to retrofit the old bridge for 500 million?
obviously you know better than all the structural engineers.