[Bay Area] MarArthur maze overpass in oakland

[wong05tsx]

Anyone got to see the scene yet?

for those of you who don't know,

A tanker melted a chunk of an overpass in the Oakland MacArthur Maze at 3:45 Sunday morning. That piece of overpass then fell onto the one below. Now, two routes in the Maze are closed: the Bay Bridge to 580 and west-80 to 880. The incident was reported nationwide.


Traffic on west-80 before the Maze (home to the worst Bay Area traffic) was merely inching along.



http://www.nbc11.com/news/13217764/detail.html?dl=mainclick#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2007/04/29/BAGVOPHQU46.DTL

We Believe!
go warriors!!!!!!!! :king:http://www.nbc11.com/2007/0429/13217950.jpg

[Age]

Incredible damage. I thought that the overpasses were more sturdy than that. Here in Hawaii most of the overpasses are constructed with concrete instead of structural steel.

I'm glad that the driver escaped alive.

[shay654]

Yeah, it's pretty crazy! Good thing I didn't go to THAT side of the bridge last night! I would've been stuck on the other side! :(

I'm just glad no one was hurt, but daym...that's going to take a while to be rebuilt!

[shay654]

<img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site571/2007/0429/20070429_085247_MazeMeltdown7_GALLERY.jpg"><br>
<img src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site571/2007/0429/20070429_085039_MazeMeltdown3_GALLERY.jpg">

<b>Commute alternatives after Freeway Fire - This will be for AT LEAST 6 MONTHS, MOST LIKELY 2 YEARS.</b></center>

<b>The Good News:</b>

All routes TO the bay Bridge from 880 South, 80 West, and 580 West are FINE.
Going from Highway 24 to 880 South via 980 West is FINE


<b>The BAD News:</b>
<u>Coming off 80 East (The Bay bridge) directly to 580/24/980 is NO LONGER POSSIBLE</u>
<i>To get to Highway 24 - Take 80 to Powell Street, get off, drive up to San Pablo Avenue and go RIGHT, you can get to Highway 24 from there.</i>

<I>To get to 580 East - Take 80 to Powell Street, get off and go left back under the freeway, get back on 80 West and make a B-line for the left lanes.</i>


<u>Going directly from 80 West to 880 South is NO LONGER POSSIBLE</u>
<i>To get to 880 South from 80 West - Take 80 West to 580 East (via the left set of lanes driving past IKEA) to W-980 to S-880</i>

<u>If its not at night and you're going to say an A's or Warriors game:</u>
<b>Take BART!!!!</b>

[ChinchillaX]

wow, just wow! this is going to be more disruptive that that 1989 earthquake...and BART will see a ridership increase!

[wong05tsx]

yeah, i have yet to see it myself. all this detour'ing getting off the bridge is gonna suck ass =(. esp. for powell st., the 80 is already bad enough during rush hours, not people got to detour there to get to 24/580.

here comes higher taxes >|:{.
and possibly a raise in gas price by a few cents cuz the truck was a truck full of unleaded fuel. and we already know they love to jack up the prices for the smallest things. already at ~60$ to fill up the tank =(

[calbears]

I doubt the 6 months - 2 years timeline. It will be much longer. It took something like 8+ years to replace the Cypress Structure. If this were LA, it would be less than 6 months.

[nyc06tsx]

that is crazy .. good luck now with all the new traffic jams in all the other routes

[shay654]

I doubt the 6 months - 2 years timeline. It will be much longer. It took something like 8+ years to replace the Cypress Structure. If this were LA, it would be less than 6 months.

I think it only took a month to rebuild the bridge after the Loma Prieta earthquake. Then again, I'm not sure. Wikipedia is your friend! hehe So, hopefully it should be rebuilt sooner than expected! :)

[Drunkenbuda]

Damn, i use to live in Oakland so i know that place. Hope you guys don't have to go that way to work.

[calbears]

I think it only took a month to rebuild the bridge after the Loma Prieta earthquake. Then again, I'm not sure. Wikipedia is your friend! hehe So, hopefully it should be rebuilt sooner than expected! :)

Yeah, about a month for the Bay Bridge, but 9 years for the Cypress Structure.

http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/marapr98/cypress.htm

Seems they just rebuild things more quickly in Southern California. The cleanup/rebuild after the Northridge Quake was very fast.

[ChinchillaX]

^ but if I remember the Cypress structure was completely rerouted before being rebuilt. They tore down that double deck freeway and made it go through a naval base or something and Caltrans and the gov't had some dispute on whether that freeway is allowed to go through their land or not. Thats why it took years for that to open, not sure if thats true....I remember reading it on Wiki.:donno:

[lokman]

Fortunately I never head up that way, and I'd be totally lost if I did. Looks like my navi would be pretty useless up there now and I'd have to detour around it.

[wong05tsx]

Fortunately I never head up that way, and I'd be totally lost if I did. Looks like my navi would be pretty useless up there now and I'd have to detour around it.

the san jose state vicinity is getting pretty nice, heading back over there friday night actually to that 300 bowling place; one of the nicest bowling alley's around i've seen yet :D.