The great Bay Bridge nightmare is over - for now, at least.
The Maryland Transportation Authority said yesterday that it has completed emergency repairs to the eastbound span more than a week earlier than its chief engineer predicted last week.
That allows the state to end the round-the-clock lane closings begun Aug. 26 after inspectors found corrosion in the bolts that anchor concrete barriers to the deck of the bridge. The barriers serve as the span's walls.
For many commuters - particularly Eastern Shore residents who were deprived of a vital eastbound lane during their evening commute home - the reopening means relief from backups that in some cases lasted more than an hour and a half.
Overnight lane closings - from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. - will continue through Friday morning for some follow-up work. But Kelly Melhem, a spokeswoman for the transportation authority, said no round-the-clock or peak-hour lane closings are planned for the foreseeable future.
The corrosion was found during inspections conducted after a fatal crash Aug. 10 in which a tractor-trailer broke through a concrete barrier on the right-hand lane of the eastbound span and plunged into the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari ordered that lane closed immediately for emergency repairs.
Similar corrosion, which had gone undetected during the bridge's annual inspections, was found along the span's left lane as well. The eastbound span is the original bridge, which opened in 1952.
To find the corrosion, inspectors used ultrasound and ground penetrating radar, techniques that go beyond the visual inspections routinely done.
Last week, Gov. Martin O'Malley ordered the Maryland Department of Transportation to conduct a review of the state's bridge and tunnel inspection procedures by a national panel of experts.
A state senator who has been pressing for an independent inspection of the bridge called O'Malley's response positive but said it "misses the point."
"The urgency does not lie in finding out what is wrong with the inspection process. The urgency lies in finding what is wrong with the bridge," said Sen. E. J. Pipkin, a Republican from the upper Eastern Shore.
Pipkin said residents have become increasingly skeptical of the transportation authority's assurances that the bridge is safe.
