Cable Snap On Bay Bridge Causes Closure

The San-Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge has been closed down, following a cable snap, that took place near the newly installed S-Curve. The mishap took place at around 5.30 p.m on Tuesday evening. The cable, along with two metal rods fell on the westbound lanes of the bridge, smashing a Ryder vehicle’s windshield and shaking up the vehicle’s driver. Whether the driver was injured or not, is not clear. There have been reports of at least three vehicle accidents being caused by the debris. However, any injuries, serious or otherwise, have not been reported yet. The snap did cause a long commuter jam though. Heavy winds, apparently, were the cause of the snap.

The bridge is heavily used by people, carrying around 2,60,000 vehicles in a day. Both the directions of the bridge have been closed down, according to California Highway Patrol Officer, Peter Van Eckhardt. He also said that, the bridge will be closed down for 24 hours, minimum, for accommodating repairs to be done by the crew members. However the bridge could be closed down indefinitely, sources say. The closure will be causing problems for the commuters and because of this, extra trains and train drivers are expected to be brought in. This was reported by the Bay Area Rapid District.

Earlier, during the Labor Day weekend, a new installation had been made to the Bay Bridge itself. The new portion known as the S-Curve is a double deck section. It replaced, an older 3,300 ton eastern-span section. The bridge, specially the newly installed portion and the area around it, had been subjected to regular inspection in the past two weeks.