Steve Heminger, director of the Bay Area Toll Authority, discusses delay in opening the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge. AP wire photo by Rich Pedroncelli.No one appeared to be more stunned at the “quick fix” being proposed for the troubled east span of the Bay Bridge than the man who is supposedly in charge of the job.
“That’s the first I’d heard of it,” said Metropolitan Transportation Commission Executive Director Steve Heminger after Wednesday’s meeting where the bridge’s own seismic safety review group announced that it had a plan to fix the shear-key problem that is expected to delay the new span’s opening from Labor Day weekend until mid-December.
“You would think that as chairman of the committee overseeing the project, I might have heard of it already,” a clearly steaming Heminger told reporters.
Equally flustering for Heminger was the review team’s assertion that Caltrans – which is supposedly working in tandem with MTC – had already worked up a design plan for the fix.
Caltrans spokesman Andrew Gordon later confirmed that the state agency was looking into the idea — but only in the context of protecting the span until the permanent work was done.
So we’ve come full circle since Heminger’s very public call Monday to delay the span’s opening, to the opening being back up in the air as the new proposal is vetted.
“These guys are starting make the Keystone Kops look like Navy SEAL Team 6,” said state Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek.
If that weren’t enough, at the same meeting it was also revealed that Caltrans still can’t find any records of the bolts used in the main tower’s foundation despite months of searching.
For more M&R — including what some University of California types really think about Janet Napolitano’s arrival and AC Transit member Joel Young’s wrist slap — read here.
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