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SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reopened Monday, but transportation engineers said their work may not be finished.
The heavily used span was closed Oct. 27 after two rods and a metal crossbar came crashing down on the roadway during evening rush hour.
Engineers worked through the weekend to finish repairs and now plan daily safety inspections. They warned the bridge may have to be closed again to complete a more permanent fix.
"We've taken care of what we believe are the big issues that led to this failure," said Rick Land, chief engineer for the state department of transportation.
Still, officials will be looking for a "better, long-term strategy" that won't require daily monitoring, he said.
Eager drivers lined up at the toll plaza shortly before the bridge reopened. The first vehicles allowed on the upper deck were led by a line of California Highway Patrol cars.
Land and other transportation officials said the repairs were designed to withstand the high winds that caused a previous fix to fail. New parts have been reinforced to control vibrations and prevent friction, he said.
Measures have also been put in place to keep falling parts from reaching the bridge, said Dale Bonner, secretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.
Bonner said those measures should have been installed earlier.
One person suffered minor injuries and three cars were damaged when 5,000 pounds of metal crashed onto the roadway last week. The parts that failed had been installed over the Labor Day weekend to repair a crack and were expected to last until a new bridge opened in 2013.
The problems heightened concerns about the safety of the bridge that had sections collapse during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The Depression-era bridge has since been outfitted with giant shock absorbers and other fortifications to help it withstand a quake as work on a new eastern span continues.
Crews working to reopen the bridge over the weekend had to battle windy conditions.
A test Saturday showed the newly installed rods were rubbing against metal, which could cause them to fail. The parts had to be reworked Sunday.
Meanwhile, the roughly 280,000 commuters who use the bridge each weekday had to look for alternate routes.
Many jammed into Bay Area Rapid Transit trains.
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Associated Press Writers Louise Chu and Terry Collins contributed to this story.
