BAY BRIDGE (KRON) -- Traffic is now moving across the Bay Bridge for the first time since an eyebar failure last Tuesday afternoon.

"The repair work on the Bay Bridge is now complete," Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney said at about 8:20 a.m. Monday. " We're in the process of opening it right now.  The bridge has been passed over to maintenance and the California Highway Patrol to do their final sweeps."

CHP officers escorted the first wave of traffic leaving the toll plaza heading into San Francisco.  CHP spokesman Trent Cross says the escort was designed to prevent a free-for-all as the first cars went through.  

Officers conducted a final sweep of the bridge to make sure there were no construction materials or tools still in the lanes.

Ney says the bridge repairs passed final testing.

"All tests went fine," he added.  "We passed all tests with flying colors.  Vibration tests went well.  Truck testing went well.  We're ready to open."

The re-opening comes nearly six days after repairs on the Bay Bridge failed raining debris onto traffic below.

"Last night we were finally able to get the geometry or the placement of the steel the way that our designers needed it," Bart Ney told an early Monday morning news conference.  "We were able to move forward with stressing.   That's basically putting the weight that was on the eyebars onto the repaired system. That is now 100% complete and the load has been transferred onto the repaired system.  The damping system is almost all in.  Of the three locations where we were placing some of those supports, one is complete and two are in their final checks.  The visual inspections and the final inspections have started. We are putting trucks in place now to do that final truck test."

Inspectors needed to find out how the new mechanism will work when traffic and wind cause vibrations on the span.  Other than a seven hour break early Sunday morning, Caltrans worked throughout the weekend to align the steel pieces.  Ney insists the agency isn't feeling pressure to open the bridge.

"Safety is our priority," Ney said. "Clearly we've taken our time with implementing this. All along we've had great participation from our third-party reviewers.  We believe that we are nearing completion on the repair.  We are not through our final inspection at this point.  We're waiting for that to finish and that will dictate when the bridge will open."

Stay tuned to KRON 4 and KRON4.com for the latest information on the bridge opening.

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