Posted on 05/24/2007 9:22:16 PM PDT by SmithL
Interstate 580 through the MacArthur Maze reopened at 8:40 p.m. Thursday -- just 26 days after a gasoline-fueled inferno caused it to collapse.
The first vehicles rolled east on I-580 from the Bay Bridge toll plaza and passed over the 165-foot stretch of newly laid freeway. A short time earlier, workers ripped canvas and plastic blankets from the concrete roadway poured Sunday afternoon, spritzed the deck with curing compounds, applied lane stripes and gave it a good sweeping.
"First of all we want to thank everyone for their patience,'' said Bob Haus, spokesman for Caltrans after the reopening. Asked why Caltrans didn't wait until the middle of the night to reopen the maze -- when traffic is almost non-existent. "Our attitude from the beginning was that as soon as it's ready to open, we'll open it.''
Some drivers were very enthusiastic about the reopening.
Douglas Spalding, 46, a teacher from Oakland, was on his way home from Trader Joe's in Emeryville when he heard I-580 was about to reopen. Instead of going home, he drove to the Bay Bridge toll plaza parking lot to cut across into east I-80 so that he could be one of the first drivers across the new I-580 connector.
"I go back and forth to the city all the time, so for me it's very convenient,'' said Spalding, who was driving an older model Toyota Corolla wagon.
The connector, a vital link in the MacArthur Maze, had been closed since April 29 when a gasoline tanker fire on Interstate 880 below caused the steel girders supporting the I-580 connector to bend and pull off their supports.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
about 9 hours ahead of schedule.. not bad.. report was it would open at 5 am or so tomorrow morning earlier on the news.
< /astounded >
No, Free Enterprise did this. And the Public Service Unions are not amused.
No it was not Caltrans.
“Contractor C.C. Myers, already famous for repairing the collapsed Interstate 10 Santa Monica Freeway two months ahead of time after the 1995 Northridge earthquake, vowed from the start to work quickly.”
All Caltrans did is put it out to bid. The public servant union drones claimed it would take months and months to rebuild and would cost $5 million as a preliminary estimate. And we all know that the unions would have run the tab up to double or triple the price and time.
CalTrans took their estimate, put it out to bid with the unionites’ estimates. The unions scoffed at it.
C.C. Myers got the bridge up in 26 days, using commonsense techniques and running non-union workers in round-the-clock shifts. His bid was ~$800K, and he’s going to get a $5 million early completion bonus.
Something similar happened here in Dallas with the High Five interchange - completed more than a year early and way, way under budget.
Death to the unions, who waste our time and money.
It's unclear whether the re-opening occurred 17 days after the contract was awarded or if the Memorial Day weekend was coming up 17 days after the award. Either way, that's some very quick work.
From their website:
http://www.ccmyers.com/currentprojects.cfm
“C.C. Myers, Inc., a Rancho Cordova, CA based, employee-owned company founded in 1977 and celebrating its 30th year in the industry, was awarded the emergency replacement contract for the section of I-580/880 at the MacArthur Maze in Alameda County on Monday, May 7, 2007 at 3PM. The bridge failure was the result of a fire stemming from a traffic accident involving a fuel tanker truck at approximately 3:45AM on Sunday, April 29, 2007.”
So that is, what, 17 days from start to opening? Amazing.
Ikea is running an ad thanking them for getting the Maze working again, and inviting the entire company over for a plate of meatballs.
Pretty neat ad, use the link above to view it.
Amazing. You should see the freaking slow crew that has been attempting to build a widening of a overpass bridge in ventura for what seems like 4 or 5 years.
General Project Facts:
Winning bid by C.C. Myers, Inc. was $867,075.00
The existing columns of I-580 will be repaired and re-poured using a quick-curing hot mix of concrete, and should be poured out on or about May 10. Cure time is approximately six hours.
The remaining, undamaged portions of the structure will be supported at either end to allow for the replacement of bearing pads.
The precast concrete bent cap will be set on or about May 18.
260,000 lbs of steel beams are being fabricated in Arizona. Approximately 60 people are working on the fabrication. Steel is coming from Pennsylvania and Texas. First shipments will begin arriving on or about May 18th
About 40 workers will be on-site working two 12 hour shifts during reconstruction including personnel with various subcontractors.
Steel girders should begin being set starting on or about May 20.
About 200 cubic yards of concrete will be poured on or about May 28.
Myers, based in the Sacramento area, will receive a $5 million bonus -- the maximum -- for finishing the work early. A week ago, Myers told The Chronicle he would reopen the Maze before Memorial Day weekend -- just 17 days after his firm was awarded the contract. He has said he expects his costs to add up to $2.5 million.
Not a bad profit for less than a month work.
And a $5 million early completion bonus on an $800,000 bid isn't a waste of money?!
Thank God for engineers — and entrepreneurs.
Nope - not since it cost a lot more than $867K to do the work.
Myers put in a lowball bid and made their money by getting it done fast. Also, I’m sure it was costing the local economy far more than $1 million per day that that bridge was down. $5 million bonus with the bridge repaired 26 days after it went down, which is anywhere from half to one third of what the unionites were estimating for them to do the job? Yeah, that’s worth it.
Similar reasons are why people use FedEx and not the postal service, even though the postal service is cheaper.
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