Another Engineering Failure In San Francisco

Thread Starter

Glenn Holland

Joined Dec 26, 2014
703
You've heard about the 54 story Millennium Tower that's tilting and sinking, but there's another structural engineering fiasco brewing at the new Transbay Transit Center -other wise known as the "Billion Dollar Bus Station":


Seems that the I-beams (that support a 4 block long rooftop park over a huge bus terminal) are developing cracks and the whole structure has been evacuated until further notice.
 

jgessling

Joined Jul 31, 2009
82
And also known as the “Salesforce Transit Center”. San Francisco sold the naming rights to the “Salesforce” company a while ago. They were enjoying the publicity during construction and the grand opening. Now maybe a different kind of publicity. The TV news reporters have been dutifully using the company name transit center to report the unfolding disaster.

And to add insult to injury the Salesforce annual convention (100,000+ attendees) has been going on this week with the usual gridlock and general mahem in the area right near the collapsing bus station. Topped off with last nights outdoor concert at the Civic Center featuring arena rockers “Journey” that managed to keep awake a large chunk of the south eastern part of the city. What is a Salesforce anyway?

I would just stay out of the city for a while but I’ve got to go to two funerals, Saturday and Sunday. Yikes!
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
My daughter is attending the Salesforce conference this week! I guess I should tell her to avoid the bus station?
 

Thread Starter

Glenn Holland

Joined Dec 26, 2014
703
I've seen photos of those cracked I-beams and it looks like there's a major problem that's going to require $$$ millions to retrofit.

The existing failures were under just "static" loading rather than the dynamic loading that would accompany a moderate or a severe earthquake. They're lucky there wasn't an earthquake or several blocks of the whole damn roof would have caved in on top of the bus terminal.
 
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