Stinger Welding Inc. saves bay area highway transportation, again

PR Log (Press Release) – Sep 08, 2009 – Stinger Welding fabricated the 3 million pound steel truss Bridge Tie In section that was supposed to open on early Tuesday morning. During the closure, CalTrans performed a routine scheduled inspection of the entire bridge. They found a crack on the existing 73 year old bridge structure that would have kept the bridge closed for undetermined amount of time for repair. C.C. Myers, the General Contractor on the project, contacted Stinger Welding to fabricate special saddles to reinforce the damaged eyebar. The crack was unrelated to the project that shut down the bridge over the weekend, Caltrans said. Caltrans said the cracked eyebar by itself would have forced officials to close the bridge for repairs. Dan Himick, president of C.C. Myers, the contractor on the weekend project, said, "... It's amazing how fast they got it done. Everything fit perfect, the fix is in place." Stinger Welding went into high gear and as the design was being engineered and detailed, SWI had available steel at the Coolidge facility, collected the team, worked 18 hours straight and freighted the cargo to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix where a DC-9 cargo plane waited to deliver the parts. Once in Oakland, this brace was rushed to the bridge aboard a flatbed truck escorted by the California Highway Patrol. The fabricated parts will reinforce the broken component and redistribute tension away from the damaged area.

Stinger came through with the fabrication and delivery of the 18,000 pounds of fabricated retrofitted assemblies in less 24 hours on a holiday weekend in time for the Bay Bridge to open during morning rush hour traffic.