There will be no more steel plates to slow motorists on the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge: Caltrans officials said the work to replace 31 aging steel joints and the crumbling concrete around them was completed early Tuesday morning.
Caltrans and the Bay Area Toll Authority undertook the repairs after motorists reported chunks of falling concrete at least four times within a span of two months from February to April. The pieces were described as being as large as baseballs or even footballs. Some damaged cars but no injuries were caused by the concrete.
After the first reported incident, officials from Caltrans said it was probably wear-and-tear that caused the concrete to crack. The cracking occurred near expansion joints dating from the bridge’s original construction in 1956. The joints expand and contract with changing temperatures.
“Monday night was significant,” said Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney. “That was the last placing of a joint.”
He added, though, that there would continue to be some overnight lane closures as crews work to place rubber seals on the last remaining joints over the next three weeks. The $8 million project lasted roughly four months.
Sometime next year, Ney said, crews will replace 30 of 31 joints on the lower deck, along with the surrounding concrete, as part of a larger rehabilitation project that will include painting and other work. That project has not yet been put out to bid and is expected to take three to five years, he said.
In April, Caltrans and officials from the Bay Area Toll Authority began a joint study to look at the long-term health of the bridge, which is expected to be completed early next year, said Caltrans spokeswoman Lindsey Hart. The study is not just focused on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge but will evaluate all seven, state-owned toll bridges in the Bay Area, she said.
The analysis will assess whether it makes more sense to do long-term repairs or undertake a total replacement of the bridges, Hart said. The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge has served the public for more than 60 years, Ney said, adding that the usual life-span of a bridge is around 50 years.
“With any bridge,” he said, “they reach a point in time when they will either be retrofitted or replaced.”
