The Transbay Joint Powers Authority announced the first level of the Salesforce Transit Center and the 5.4-acre rooftop public park will reopen at 6 a.m. on July 1. Regional bus service from the upper floors will resume later this summer, says TJPA.
The San Francisco facility, which opened last August to great fanfare, has been closed since late September, after the inadvertent discovery of a brittle fracture in the bottom flange of a third-floor tapered built-up plate girder spanning Fremont Street.
An investigation followed, which uncovered a fracture in a twin parallel girder spanning Fremont. The two span 87 ft and support the park above and the second-floor bus deck below, via a hanger plate at the girders' midspan, where the fractures initiated.
Double Splints
Contractors fixed the girders by bolting double splints, sandwiching the bottom flanges, at their midspans. They also retrofitted twin parallel girders that span First Street, which did not fracture. Workers completed repairs last month.
The eight-month investigation into the transit center gave the rest of the facility a clean bill of health, says TJPA. The reopening follows a fire and life-safety re-inspection program with city and state oversight. In addition, the building has been recommissioned.
The report of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission-appointed peer review panel, which will contain recommendations aimed at avoiding future mishaps, is not going to be released for at least a couple of months. "We still have things to finish up on the transit center before we issue a final report," says Michael D. Engelhardt, chairman of the panel and a professor of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
