When a broken link on the San Francisco Bay bridge was found over Labor Day weekend, the repair was a drama-filled race against time. What we didn't show you was the planned work taking place. It was even more impressive.
As part of a project to replace the outdated east section of the bay bridge, a 300 foot section of the double-deck bridge was cut out of the Yerba Buena side of the bridge and replaced with a temporary detour section while an all-new span is built to meet the latest seismic requirements. The only reason the cracked bridge element was found was construction and inspection crews were already on-site for previously planned road work, doesn't sound as sexy as an undetected crack in a bridge until you see what they were up to. Taking a whole section of bridge out and installing new piece in the span of a long weekend is impressive, doing it while 150 feet in the air makes it even more so.