The Bay Bridge closure had Marin roadways clogged in the early-morning hours Wednesday as commuters packed Highway 37 and the Richmond-San Rafael and Golden Gate bridges.
Marry Currie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Transit District, said from midnight through 6 a.m. there were big increases every hour in the number of cars on the Golden Gate Bridge compared with the same times a week earlier.
The extra traffic wasn't as significant from 7 to 8 a.m., Currie said, because "people were stuck upstream trying to get to the bridge."
She said the number of commuters on early-morning Larkspur ferries was up by about 60 riders per ferry; officials ran an extra trip to help compensate.
Commuters reported Highway 37 traffic was "barely moving" both into Marin Wednesday morning and exiting Marin Tuesday evening.
California Highway Patrol said traffic flow through Marin Wednesday morning was heavier than normal.
"If I grade it from a 1 to 10, it's about a 7," said Tom Reimer, a volunteer with the Marin CHP office.
Jamie Lomanto, a parking officer with the Sausalito Police Department, reported that his commute from Santa Rosa was OK at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, but northbound traffic Tuesday night was a different story.
"Last night I definitely noticed it though, going home," he said.
Caltrans officials Wednesday morning were unable to provide estimates of when the bridge would be reopned. Crews worked through the night on a portion of the bridge's eastern span that had been repaired over the Labor Day weekend but fell apart at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"We're working on it," said Bob Haus, Caltans spokesman. "The high winds are not making it easy. We have to take the safety of the workers into account here."
Haus said Wednesday morning's heavy traffic on both the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge was "about what we expected."
He said at 8:45 a.m., it was taking 26 minutes longer than normal to get from Berkeley to San Rafael across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
The San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge has been closed in both directions, after pieces of the cantilever section fell during the late-afternoon commute. The SF Chronicle reports that authorities said the pieces were two high-strength rods and a support saddle that were part of the emergency repair work done during Labor Day weekend.
The San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge was shut down over Labor Day weekend for seismic retrofit repairs. Crews slid an entire section of the bridge out and slid a new one in. However, during an inspection of the bridge, crews discovered a cracked support strut (pictured) that forced extra repairs and caused the bridge to open hours later than originally planned.
To fix the cracked strut, crews wrapped a custom-made steel saddle, which acted like a brace around a person's knee, around the link to redistribute stress away from the area. That was attached to another saddle, set lower down the Bay Bridge span with steel tie rods.
When the crack was first found, crews said that the bridge would have to remain closed until the crack was repaired. With the original repair gone, crews are back to square one.
The parts of the span's overhead steel support structure fell around 5:30 PM. Three vehicles were hit by the debris, and the passengers in one vehicle were shaken up but not injured.
Although no statement has been made about the timespan for the closure, if indeed it were the fixed portions from the Labor Day repair that failed, based on the previous estimates during the Labor Day weekend, it would seem that it will be days before the bridge is repaired.
An indefinite closure of the Bay Bridge would severely impact the Bay Area commute.
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