Up, up, and away

Let's try this whole thing all over again:

• Salesforce Transit Center

  Thornton Tomasetti is the structural engineer-of-record and is also providing sustainability services for Salesforce Transit Center, a new transit terminal topped by a 5.4-acre public park. The project, awarded through a design and development competition, promises to transform the neighborhood and centralize transportation for the region, as part of an overall redevelopment plan for the city of San Francisco.

• Contractor Gets Green Light to Fix Two Fractured Girders at Salesforce Transit Center

  The third-floor Fremont Street tapered plate girders help support the park directly above and the second-floor bus level—via a hanger at the midspan that thickens the web to 4 in. and slots through the bottom flange—directly below the girder level.

  ...

  As described by Bruce Gibbons, the TT managing principal in charge of the transit hub, the bolted fix would only repair the compromised region, at the 8-ft-deep midspan of each 80-ft-long girder, by bypassing the fractured area. The double splint consists of a sandwich of two Grade 70 steel plates, 2 in. thick, and a total of 20 in. wide, on both sides of the web. The bent plates will be a total of 14 ft long, centered at the girder's midspan. There will be 224 bolts, said Turchon. In addition, 8-in.-tall plates will be bolted to each girder’s vertical stiffener.

• Update on Construction and temporary closure of the Salesforce Transit Center

  Actions taken since last Board meeting:

  • Fremont Street repair designed and material being procured; MTC Peer Review Panel (PRP) in concurrence
  • Same detail proposed at First Street with PRP concurrence
  • Load Shedding analysis completed and submitted to the PRP
  • Bolts in load path received Ultrasonic/Non-Destructive Testing; no damage detected
  • Initiated search for other areas susceptible to brittle fracture. PRP actively participating in review of the effort, supported by Ruby & Associates

• Repair of Fractured Girders Complete at Shuttered Salesforce Transit Center

  To date, crews have removed all shoring from both sets of third-floor girders that span 87 ft and support both a public rooftop park above and hang the second floor bus level. All traffic lanes are now open during the day. Night street closures will continue throughout May to restore lights, MUNI overhead lines and to reinstall ceiling panels.

  Recommissioning of the 4.5-block-long facility will continue through the end of this month. The quality assurance process includes retesting and re-inspecting fire and life safety systems throughout the facility and retesting the building’s mechanical and electrical systems, reports TJPA.

• Repairs on cracked beams finished at shuttered Transbay Transit Terminal

  The people behind the grinding effort to reopen the $2.2 billion Transbay Transit Center after its emergency closure last September is holding their breath and waiting to see what a peer review team will say about the inspections of the facility when it meets May 22.

  That’s because the say-so of the reviewers may be the last obstacle toward setting a date to finally reopen the building and let bus traffic roll once again.

  At Thursday’s meeting of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) board, Executive Director Mark Zabaneh said that it will take about a month from the time the review panel gives the okay for the building to open.

  “We would need about a four week period to get buses inside,” said Zabaneh, citing a need to get drivers used to navigating the facility once again.