Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playĪfter a painstaking six-month study of the million-plus-square-foot structure, engineers determined that the problem was confined to the two 80-foot steel beams supporting the bus deck over Fremont Street, which, according to Engelhardt, “moved barely an inch,” due to the fractures. “An underlying weakness in the steel itself, stresses during fabrication and thermal cutting, and the strain from loads during service.” “The two brittle fractures were likely caused by a ‘perfect storm’ of three factors,” says Mike Engelhardt, chair of the review committee and a structural engineering professor at University of Texas-Austin.

Citing an “abundance of caution,” officials of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority closed the transit center and park, and empaneled a peer review committee of five nationally recognized experts in steel structure and fracture mechanics to examine the cause of the cracks and oversee the plan for the repair. On September 25, 2018, workers discovered two cracked steel beams supporting the bus deck of the $2.2 billion project, which, along with the neighboring Salesforce Tower, dominates the skyline and alters the economic and cultural landscape of one the world’s great cities. Nine months after its glorious debut, and eight months after its temporary, ignominious closing, Salesforce Transit Center and Park in San Francisco re-opens to the public today, Monday, July 1.

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