That no one was severely injured or killed Tuesday when the emergency "fix" engineers placed onto the San Francisco area's Bay Bridge fell to the road deck during the evening commute seems something of a miracle.

But that thought probably didn't make Wednesday any easier for the tens of thousands of Bay area people who had to find new ways to get to and from work and school Wednesday. NPR's Richard Gonzales reported on All Things Considered that more than 200,000 cars use the bridge everyday.

Reports on Wednesday were that the same sort of high winds that loosened the 5,000 pounds of metal used to "repair" the bridge after a crack in the structure was found during a summer seismic inspection were whipping around the structure on Wednesday, making new repairs difficult.

This San Francisco Chronicle story has good details on how the prior repair failed.

 

In his NPR report, Richard said there are some commuters who, unsurprisingly, find the 73-year old bridge's problems unnerving.

An excerpt from his report:

RICHARD: Ruy Kawai said he's concerned the bridge failure is a bad sign.

KWAI: If it keeps happening — I'm an architect — so the stress happening at one point can cause catastrophic failure. So what's going to happen? Its scary.

Another excerpt:

RICHARD: But a civil engineering professor at UC Berkeley is warning that the bridge's problems may be deeper than most people realize. Albohassan Asteneh told KQED'S Forum show that the initial crack in the I-bar beam was a warning sign.

ASTENEH: And the repair that was done was very unusual to put it mildly. And it was done for a temporary construction site where you try to get something out and you just use bars, and rods and saddles and you get it done. I don't think all the rules and guidelines for bridge repair were followed here. Otherwise this piece would not have fallen.

RICHARD: State transportation officials dispute that. They say they will work around the clock to repair the bridge.

You have to admire their determination. But if they could install a properly engineered repair, that would inspire the most the confidence.