Published: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 - 8:56 am
Last Modified: Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 - 9:44 am
It was a matter of being at the right place at the right time.
Construction workers with North Highlands-based MCM Construction Co. were finishing their workday on the Bay Bridge's new, unopened east span Tuesday when the emergency call came from Caltrans:
A cable has snapped on the Bay Bridge, can you get workers there now?
"Caltrans asked us to mobilize whatever crews we had," MCM spokesman Ed Puchi said.
A half-dozen MCM crew members hurried two miles to the site and worked through the night with Caltrans bridge engineers, analyzing the problem and beginning work on a temporary fix, Puchi said.
The crews were buffeted by high winds during their ongoing high-wire act.
"We are in the process of re-assembling the retention rods, replacing them, tensioning them, and doing some repairs to a saddle-bracket," Puchi said this morning. "It is pretty much a matter of making repairs and putting the system back in place until a more permanent repair can be designed."
The broken cable, or retention rod, is part of a repair that crews made in a hurry a month-and-a-half ago, during Labor Day weekend, when a large crack was found in a bracket on the cantilever section of the east span, between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island.
Another Sacramento-area company, C.C. Myers, also had crews nearby on Yerba Buena Island on Tuesday. Those crews rushed to the site, but MCM arrived first. The Myers company did the original work on the crack repair.
"Because of the urgency, it was whoever could get there first," Myers spokeswoman Beth Ruyak said. "Caltrans has asked us to stand by."
When summoned to the emergency, MCM crews were building a connector section between the new span and the Oakland toll plaza.
Emergency repairs are not new for the 36-year-old construction company. MCM crews were among the first responders when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake knocked down a major section of freeway in Oakland.
The company also built numerous major freeway interchanges in Southern California for Caltrans.
In the Sacramento area, MCM recently widened the Watt Avenue Bridge for Sacramento County and built the Arden-Garden Connector for the city of Sacramento.
Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.
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