Cracked Beams Repaired, S.F.'s Transbay Transit Center Ready to Reopen

Update: The Transbay Joint Powers Authority announced via Twitter that the Transbay Transit Center will reopen on July 1, 2019.

"Eight months after the discovery of cracked steel girders forced its closure, the Transbay transit center is safe to reopen, an independent panel of engineers and experts concluded Monday evening," reports Michael Cabanatuan.

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority will still have to decide a reopening date, according to Cabanatuan. Still there's reason to believe the buses and people can return to the center fairly soon. "Work to prepare for a reopening has been under way for weeks, and Transbay officials said as recently as the beginning of June that the center might be able to open before the end of the month."

"A five-member peer-review committee appointed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission at the request of San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf approved the structure for reopening," according to Cabanatuan, after "minor welding flaws were found, repaired and examined but determined not to be of concern."

 A look back at the evolution of the Transbay Transit Center story earlier this year from the Planetizen archives, beginning with the grand opening, through the closure of the facility after the discovery of the cracked beams, and into the ensuing fallout and controversy.

• San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center Opens This Weekend (August 8, 2018)
• San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center Open, When Will Trains Arrive? (August 13, 2018)
• Open for a Month, San Francisco's Transit Terminal Shut Down Due to Cracked Beams (October 1, 2018)
• Lawsuits, Delays, and Political Drama as Salesforce Transit Center Fallout Deepens (October 25, 2018)
• SF Transbay Transit Center Cracks Isolated to Beams, Say Experts (November 26, 2018)
• S.F.'s Transbay Transit Center Won't Reopen Until June at the Earliest (February 2, 2019)