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SAN FRANCISCO — The brand-new Salesforce Transit Center — this city’s highly-touted transit hub — will remain closed at least through the end of next week after the discovery of a second crack in a steel supporting beam overnight, authorities said Wednesday.
Safety concerns at the center also forced the closure of Fremont Street, throwing the Wednesday morning commute into chaos, a situation that likely will remain until the transit center reopens. The latest development shook the confidence of a city that has recently endured a string of structural questions with the new Bay Bridge and a sinking high-rise.
Workers on Tuesday initially found one crack in a structural beam that runs over Fremont Street in the month-old $2.2 billion home to four public bus systems, and authorities closed the center immediately. An inspection of the area around that crack later revealed another crack in another adjacent beam, said Mark Zabaneh, the executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, at a news conference.
The main beam runs the length of the east building, one of three connected but distinctly constructed buildings that comprise the transit center, Zabaneh said. It has a four-inch-thick plate and is 60 feet long and 2½ feet wide. The cracks are both in a flange.
Fremont Street also is expected to remain closed into next week, he said.
“At this point, it’s hard to discern what caused (the crack),” Zabaneh said. “It could be a fabrication issue. It could be installation. It could be design. We are looking into all three of them.”
Zabaneh said it contracted with Herrick Steel to provide the steel for the building. A person who answered the phone at the company on Wednesday afternoon said officials there would not comment.
According to Zabaneh, the building’s most recent inspection was completed in June 2016, and there’s no way of knowing when the cracks appeared in the 27 months since then.
“I don’t have enough information at this time to offer an opinion,” said Jeff Gee, the vice chairman of the Joint Powers Authority. “Staff is very focused on this effort, as they should be.”
Fremont Street’s closure created gridlock in the downtown area that spilled onto local freeways Wednesday morning. Traffic backed up on the westbound direction of the Bay Bridge, past the MacArthur Maze and to the Caldecott Tunnel.
Commuters also were backed up several miles on Interstate 880 heading into the city, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Police closed down the Fremont Street exits and entrances to the Bay Bridge, creating further havoc.
San Francisco resident Kelly Joslin has felt the effects of the closure firsthand. The afternoon commute home from her teaching job in Castro Valley was half an hour longer Tuesday and 15 to 20 minutes longer Wednesday.
“It’s been pretty frustrating,” said Joslin, 37. “Any additional time on top of my already lengthy commute is tough. The increase in congestion definitely increases my stress level when I’m driving and the need to determine alternate routes is also a challenge.”
While officials admonished commuters not to drive into the city, Caltrain weekday ridership held steady at 65,000 on Wednesday. The story was similar for BART, which had recorded some 248,056 exits as of 4 p.m., just 10,123 more than the previous Wednesday.
CHP Officer John Fransen warned those who choose to drive to expect slower commutes.
“We just ask that people please be patient and drive as safe as possible,” he said.
The closure comes as more than 150,000 people are in the Bay Area for the annual Dreamforce tech conference, an event put on by Salesforce. The event started Tuesday and runs through Friday. The also-new Salesforce Tower opened adjacent to the transit center at the beginning of the year; Salesforce paid about $110 million for 25-year naming rights to the transit center.
Bus service is operating out of the Temporary Transbay Terminal at Howard and Main streets while the new building is closed.
Staff writer Erin Baldassari contributed to this report.
WATCH: Drone footage of the new San Francisco transit center.
