A replacement section slides into place connecting the new detour route during the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge seismic retrofit in San Francisco, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. The bridge is closed over the Labor Day weekend and expected to reopen before morning rush hour Tuesday. (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Transportation officials say the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will reopen at the start of the workweek today after all.
Randy Iwasaki (ee-wah-SAK-kee), director of the California Department of Transportation, said the bridge will open at 7 a.m. after crews completed repairing a crack in the steel link.
Officials had pushed the reopening to 5 a.m. Wednesday after crews discovered the crack Saturday while conducting seismic upgrades on the 73-year-old bridge. But Iwasaki said crews worked around the clock and were able to finish the repair work.
He says the bridge has been inspected and deemed to safe to reopen.
The bridge carries about 260,000 vehicles a day between San Francisco and heavily populated cities to its east.