Major Traffic Cluster at SF Bay Bridge

[sudsmaster]

As you may have seen on the news, a gas tanker crashed and exploded on perhaps the biggest highway interchane in teh SF Bay Area this morning. The heat was so intense that it melted the steel beams holding up the freeway above the tanker, and it collapsed onto the section where the tanker was. Fortunately the driver was not seriously injured and nobody else was injured (it happened at about 4 am Sunday).

But the upshot is the southbound traffic from Berkeley to Oakland is disrupted, but at least there is a freeway alternative. Even worse is east bound traffic from SF to Walnut Creek - that will require traffic to get off onto city streets and go some eight blocks to circumvent the collapsed section.

Again I'm thankful that I have a 2 mile commute to work every morning, but this accident is really a disaster for what was already one of the most congested and busy freeway interchanges in the country. I don't often traverse that section, but even when it was fine it was always a fairly harrowing experience, esp trying to go south from Berkeley to Oakland.

And so it goes.

 

[exploder3211]

UH-Oh... The exploder was visiting

 

[sudsmaster]

LOL.

Well, if I might, this is a chance to indulge my passion for metallurgy.

The steel didn't actually melt... the flames were not hot enough for that. But, in a situation similar to the WTC collapse, the heat caused the steel alloy to soften. This is because iron, like most metals, is really crystalline substance. Iron is rather unique in that it changes crystal structure as it is heated and cooled, and metallurgists expoit this ability in order to fashion a huge number of various alloys with different properties. We owe the existence of non-magnetic stainless steel to this ability of steel (really, from its iron atom content) to morph in and out of different crystal forms as it is heated and cooled.

On a more technical basis, most steel at room temperature is in a compact crystal form, called face centered cubic (FCC). As it is heated to temps of 1300F and above, it changes to a larger, more open crystal form, called body centered cubic (BCC). It is at this temperature that various alloying elements (chromium, nickel, molydenum, silicon, etc) can be added and become incorporated into the crystal structure. The BCC form is non-magnetic. In the case of 304 stainless steel, the high level of chromium and nickel elements forces the iron atoms to remain in a BCC crytal form as the steel cools. Thus, it's non-magnetic at room temperature. Cool, eh?

OK, lesson over and you won't be tested in the morning

 

[sudsmaster]

A view of the carnage

 

[Cybrvanr]

I imagine the highways are going to be total gridlock Monday because of this. How many massive crashes like this that completely paralyze a highway do we hafta have before we will learn that automotive based transportation is not the solution! I live just south of Washington DC, where traffic does not move above 20 miles per hour during normal commutes. Almost everyday however, there's a major crash that completely shuts down interstate 95....You might as well stay at work, cuz you ain't gettin home!!! I would really hate to see what would happen to the DC area if it needed to be evacuated in a hurry. We already saw how good the roads coming out of Houston worked after hurrican Rita.

With major crashes like this that cripple highway systems in cities, to $4.00 gasoline, to our dependence on foreign oil, the automobile will be the end of this country, and historians will end up looking back at the whole mess and be amazed that we were unable to see the warning signs that the infrastructure was collapsing in front of our eyes just like that overpass did!

 

[dalangdon]

You couldn't pay me enough to drive in the bay area, Southern California, or the New York City - DC area. I love all three places, and would live in any of them in a second, but just don't ask me to drive. Gridlock seriously freaks me out.

With such excellent transit in all three places (even LA, which has quietly grown a good subway and commuter rail system) who would want to go through all that? Let somebody else do the driving.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of people "rediscovering" BART in the coming weeks and months, LOL.

 

[sudsmaster]

BART is adding a lot of trains, and making the system fare-free tomorrow. The ferry boats are doubling their service, as well.

I used to traverse that interchange every day on my way from El Cerrito to Alameda, and then even further down to San Jose. It was never a pleasant commute, except late at night (and then I was fighting off the zzz's and just longing to get home).

The connector between Berkeley and Oakland will be fixed first. Then the connector between the bridge and the freeway going east to Walnut Creet. The people on that commute will be... screwed... in the meantime.

 

[laundryshark]

As for Getting to and from the Laundromat?...

If you don't have to use that interchange for a laundry trip, then that is most definitely a good thang! *grins*--Laundry Shark