Nearly all SF Bay Bridge anchor rods are at risk of corrosion
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Nearly every one of the 423 steel rods that anchor the tower of the new Bay Bridge eastern span to its base has been sitting in potentially corrosive water, Caltrans officials said Tuesday — one the most serious construction defects found yet on the $6.4 billion project.
Several of the high-strength, 25-foot-long rods inspected after the first signs of trouble appeared last month were found to be submerged in several feet of water, in part because not enough grout had been pumped into protective sleeves to keep them dry, officials told members of a bridge project oversight committee in Oakland.
... Six months before the bridge opened in September 2013, steel rods crucial to seismic-stabilizing structures on the bridge snapped when they were tensioned. On Tuesday, Caltrans revealed that rust and other signs of corrosion had been visible on those rods in 2011, but that no one had checked them further.
... The rods were installed by Kiewit Construction, which had the fabrication contract for the 525-foot-tall tower. They were put in place before the structure was added beginning in 2010. The source of the water found in the sleeves in recent days is not known. ... It’s unclear how Caltrans would replace any corroded rods, because there’s no room in the chamber to maneuver new ones into position.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Nearly-all-Bay-Bridge-tower-rods-sitting-in-water-5792535.php
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