Eight Days a Week
As many of you might know, the Bay Bridge in San Francisco was closed to replace a span, taking advantage of the holiday weekend, over a four day period which started last Thursday evening and ended Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, the bridge was found to have additional issues during inspections that were carried out during the shut-down. The problems were severe enough that officials warned the public that the bridge would not be opened until Wednesday, a day later than planned. The additional time was required to repair the new problem.
Amazingly, the bridge opened this morning. How did they do that? Here is a quote from today's news that gives us some insight.
"Through the night, the crews have worked nonstop - for almost 70 hours - and were able to complete repair work on the damaged eyebar beam," Caltrans Director Randy Iwasaki said at a hastily called news conference on Yerba Buena Island at 6:10 a.m. "The bridge has been inspected, and it's safer than it was when we closed it."
If only I could cram 70 hour work into the night shift, I could do this type of magic as well. I am also happy that the bridge was safer after repairs were done than before they started. Sort of makes maintenance sound like it is worth the effort.
Later.
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