News stories that you shouldn’t miss:
1. The number of badly designed bolts installed on the new Bay Bridge now stands at more than 2,300, the Chron$ reports, adding that Caltrans continued to use the overly hard metal fasteners even after the agency had banned their use elsewhere in the state. The newspaper also reports that Caltrans has concluded that 96 of the huge bolts are defective — 32 of those have already snapped. Caltrans allowed the banned bolts to be installed on the bridge because the span was designed in 1995 — nine years before the agency had concluded that they were unsafe because the fasteners can become overly brittle when exposed to the environment.
