If you use the Bay Bridge to get to work, you may be screwed as the MacArthur Maze that leads to the Bay Bridge has been partially destroyed.
A huge ball of fire from an exploding gasoline tanker truck caused an overpass in the MacArthur Maze in the East Bay near the Bay Bridge to collapse on top of the highway below early Sunday, virtually ensuring major traffic problems and confusion for weeks to come.
The intense heat crumbled the elevated roadway that carried eastbound traffic from the Bay Bridge onto Interstates 580 and 980 and state Highway 24. The broken concrete fell like a blanket over the connector roadway from southbound Interstate 80 to I-880.
The tanker, full of 8,600 gallons of vehicle-ready gasoline, reportedly crashed into a pillar shortly before 4 a.m. on a tight turn and exploded in flames that continued for several hours...
Engineers said the concrete roadway's steel underbelly seems to have heated to a sufficient temperature to bend the metal, which then pulled the roadbed off its supports.
Witnesses described a tremendous explosion that engulfed two levels of freeway in a wall of fire before they collapsed, spilling flaming gasoline to the ground.
Most importanlty, what does this mean for everyone's commute?
Below the two stretches of roadway is a Caltrans property full of equipment being used to rebuild the Bay Bridge.
So far this morning, traffic on all the affected roadways remains light, but major backups are expected today and for the foreseeable future.
"We're screwed, huh? That's going to be rough on everybody," said Joe Dorey, 55, an engineer who lives in Oakland.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a press conference in San Diego on Sunday, said that he has spoken to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the crash aftermath -- and particularly how to accomplish repairs quickly. He said officials plan to "fast-track" the repairs using some of the same short cuts that got the I-10 rebulit quickly after the Northridge earthquake in 1994.
The full inplications of the disruption are not clear to me as I am not very familiar with that stretch ofroad, but I think it is safe to assume that it will be a mess. Thankfully, I use the BART!