How do you replace 32 massive bolts, 9-24 feet long, on the SF Bay Bridge when a new roadbed is on top of them? Engineers are working on it.
Metallurgists say massive bolts holding the roadbed to the pier on the new SF Bay Bridge shouldn’t have snapped. But they did, 32 out of 96 bolts that were tightened in March have fractured. The remaining 192 bolts will not be tightened until they figure out what went wrong.
The Contra Costa Times has an in depth article on the SF Bay Bridge bolts snapping. One metallurgist suspects a defect in the bolts themselves. Yikes.