Eyebar Just One Of Bay Bridge's Many Problems

For much of the past two weeks, the Bay Area's attention was focused on a previously obscure piece of structural steel on the east span of the Bay Bridge known as an eyebar.

The cracked eyebar forced the extension of a scheduled construction closure of the bridge over Labor Day weekend for emergency repairs. Then, when that repair failed on Oct. 27, flinging tons of steel onto the bridge during the evening commute, the bridge was barricaded for another 51/2 days while the repairs were fixed. And in the months to come, Caltrans officials have warned, another closure to install a more permanent repair is likely.

Despite all the attention it has received, and all the complaining it has caused, the eyebar isn't the biggest danger on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge. And it's not the reason the span is being replaced - at a cost of $6.3 billion - instead of retrofitted

Like any old structure, the eastern span has many flaws, and because of its design, is considered more prone than other bridges to collapse during an earthquake. The flaws considered most serious by engineers and geologists include the span's foundations, its network of steel supports, and the supports for the road deck, which were what failed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.