SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials are sending engineers to find out what caused a repair on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to fail and send a 5,000-pound crossbeam and two rods into rush-hour traffic.
Federal Highway Administration spokeswoman Nancy Singer says the agency did not inspect the original Labor Day weekend repair, relying only on state inspection reports.
The pieces that broke Tuesday evening were part of major repairs done after crews discovered a cracked link during an earthquake safety upgrade.
Singer says the agency’s bridge experts have been dispatched to assist the state Transportation Department in finding out why that fix failed.
State officials say there’s a chance the bridge could reopen as soon as Thursday, but high winds are hampering repair efforts.
