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Salesforce Transit Center's structural fiasco saga revisited

2019-10-29T18:46:00-04:00

The cracks discovered beneath the rooftop park were classic brittle fractures. The tapered 4-inch-thick steel beams—2.5 feet wide and 60 feet long, with a horizontal flange on the bottom—undergirded the 5.4-acre park on the building’s fourth level, and buttressed the roof of the bus deck on the second level. By themselves, the cracks formed a point of weakness with potentially hazardous consequences. But they also suggested the possibility of a larger crisis.

Popular Mechanics offer a detailed recap of the events following the discovery of two cracked structural steel beams in the brand new $2.2 billion, Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco in 2018.

Pelli Clarke Pelli-Designed Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco to Reopen July 1

2019-06-11T19:40:00-04:00

Eight months after the discovery of cracked steel girders forced its closure, the Transbay transit center is safe to reopen, an independent panel of engineers and experts has concluded. The reopening is set for 6 a.m. July 1.

A five-member peer-review committee appointed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has approved a series of recently-completed structural repairs made to the Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco.

Workers repair damaged structural beams at the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Frank Schulenburg.

A pair of cracked structural steel beams were discovered in one section of the building just after the transit center opened late last year. Months of independent investigation and testing discerned that the beams cracked because a series of welding access holes that had been made to the steel beams to allow for their installation.

The affected beams were replaced and now, as Therese McMillan, MTC's executive director tells The San Francisco Chronicle, “The steel structure is sound for continued service."

San Francisco’s shiny new Salesforce Transit Center remains closed as it faces more problems

2018-10-25T14:52:00-04:00

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority voted unanimously Tuesday to freeze $9.7 million in sales tax funding for the next phase of the Transbay Transit Center, as members called for an evaluation of the beleaguered project and the agency that runs it. The news came as Transbay officials again pushed back the date to complete testing of steel from two cracked beams that led to shutting down the building in September.

Facade detail. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

San Francisco’s brand new Transbay Transit Center (also know as Salesforce Transit Center) can't catch a break: after the long anticipated $2.2 billion transportation hub at Mission and Fremont Streets had to close again when cracks in several steel beams appeared shortly following its August grand opening, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority now also voted to put public funding on hold and investigate where things went wrong.

Metal probes extracted from the steel beams are currently being lab-tested, and the reopening date hinges on these results but isn't expected before mid-November, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

San Francisco’s new $2.2 billion Salesforce Transit Center closed after 2nd steel beam cracks

2018-09-27T17:48:00-04:00

San Francisco’s new Transbay Transit Center will remain closed at least through the end of next week, officials said Wednesday, after yet another cracked beam was discovered during an overnight safety inspection. The $2.2 billion hub for buses and eventually trains, which opened just last month as the flashy centerpiece of city infrastructure, was closed abruptly Tuesday afternoon after a fissure was spotted in a beam that helps hold up the sprawling complex.

In a statement issued on September 26, Executive Director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, Mark Zabaneh, said: "We apologize for this inconvenience to the public and commuters. I would like to assure the public, this is a localized issue within the transit center and there is no impact to any adjacent properties. Additionally, our current analysis shows that this is contained within the Fremont Street area. The safety of everyone who visits the Salesforce Transit Center is our highest priority and we will work expeditiously to address and rectify this situation."

Meanwhile, not far away from the Transit Center, another sizable, troubled San Francisco building struggles to stay structurally sound: the sinking Millennium Tower risks getting yellow-tagged by the city if its newly appeared cracks aren't being addressed.