HeadsUp: In advance of tomorrow morning's commute, if you can avoid driving into the downtown area please do so. Consider using other transit options including public transportation, carpools, and taxis. — SFMTA (@sfmta_muni) September 26, 2018 Nice view of the Salesforce Transit Center while we wait for a presser to find out WHY a cracked in a beam in the new bldg has shut down the center. There is temporary bus service out of the Temporary Transbay Terminal at Howard and Main streets until all inspections are complete pic.twitter.com/m4eozyhz9r — Kate Larsen (@KateABC7) September 26, 2018 Workers emptying the salesforce transit center near Fremont after a crack in one of the steel beams in the ceiling of the third level Bus Deck was discovered. We were told to back up out from under the structure! pic.twitter.com/er4wTa2b9R — Kate Larsen (@KateABC7) September 25, 2018 “We discovered it at 10 o'clock we asked our designers to come in and inspect it and so some analysis. And once we got the findings from the designers it became apparent that the bus deck needs to be closed” Mark Zabaneh, TJPA re: cracked beam at salesforce transit center — Kate Larsen (@KateABC7) September 26, 2018 Salesforce transit center closed. This is the scene at Beale and Mission. SFMTA re routing people trying to catch a bus to the old temporary Transbay Terminal at Howard and Main streets pic.twitter.com/yrVjtjh1vt — Kate Larsen (@KateABC7) September 26, 2018 SFMTA says temporary transbay terminal will be used again Wednesday & until #SalesforceTransitCenter can be repaired. Officials urge commuters to avoid driving downtown if possible. pic.twitter.com/DFbm55Yayd — Cornell Barnard (@CornellBarnard) September 26, 2018 RELATED STORIES & VIDEOS: SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco is temporarily closed after crews discovered a fissure in a steel beam on the third level of the center Tuesday, officials announced.The Transbay Joint Powers Authority emptied the Salesforce Transit Center Tuesday evening after workers discovered a crack in a load-bearing beam.Commuters trying to catch the bus were floored to learn the new $2 billion transit center has a defect. "The Millennium Tower, now this. I'm sure there has to be some issues going on with the construction people," said bus commuter Sid Goel. "Well the beam is cracked so the behavior of the beam is unpredictable and that's why our engineers are cautious and they want us to close that area," said Executive Director of the TJPA, Mark Zabaneh.Zabaneh adds that the cracked beam is in the ceiling of the third level bus deck on the eastern side of the transit center near Fremont Street. The horizontal beam is beneath the rooftop park.Zabaneh says the crack was discovered around 10 a.m. Tuesday morning while workers were installing ceiling panels. "It's very disappointing for us responsible for building the transit center, and it's very disappointing that we have to inconvenience the public," he added. "It's a major deal," said Michael Kreiger of SF Muni.The crack affected areas far outside the transit center. These San Francisco Muni workers had to de-energize bus lines in the area, so contractors can safely work inside the building. "They have traffic blocked all over the place and if that building is in trouble they need to fix it," said Kreiger.<doc-sep>The discovery of a cracked steel beam that forced the abrupt closure Tuesday of the brand-new Transbay Transit Center is the latest headache for the $2.2 billion transportation hub, which has been plagued by glitches and cost overruns since its inception. The cracked beam was spotted Tuesday morning by workers installing ceiling panels on the center’s third-floor bus platform, and concern over its potential failure prompted city officials to close the terminal and some streets at 4:30 p.m. They shunted rush-hour commuters to the nearby Temporary Transbay Terminal, which had been used during the center’s construction. The center sits next to the troubled Millennium Tower, which has sunk 18 inches since it opened in 2009. The damaged beam at the transit center was discovered on the same day that engineers inspected a cracked window on the tower, in an attempt to determine if it’s related to building’s sinking and tilting. The operator of the transit center was quick to give assurances that the two problems were unrelated. Now Playing: In the works for a decade, the new transit center combines muscular architecture with a lush varied park. Video: Carlos Avila Gonzalez “We don’t see a nexus,” Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Mark Zabaneh said at an afternoon news conference announcing the closure. The transit center is also adjacent to the recently opened Salesforce Tower, the city’s tallest high-rise. Salesforce, the cloud computing company and San Francisco’s largest employer, purchased the naming rights to both the transit center and its rooftop park. The call to close the transit center and Salesforce Park came on the same day that company founder Marc Benioff was celebrating his birthday and welcoming 170,000 conventioneers to his company’s annual weeklong Dreamforce conference. While the closure might not have shown those visitors the city in its best light, safety remained the top priority at the center, which opened just 45 days ago after 20 years of planning and almost a decade of construction. “The beam is cracked, so the behavior of the beam is unpredictable,” Zabaneh said. “We will be working tonight and tomorrow morning to get a better understanding of the cause of the crack.” The crack is in a 6½-foot-deep American-made steel beam on the third floor near Fremont Street. It’s one of dozens of beams that support the park above the bus deck and is topped by 5 or 6 feet of soil. Late Tuesday evening, the transit authority said it would inspect all steel beams in the center. The steel was fabricated by Herrick Corp. of Stockton under a $189 million contract with Skanska USA of New York, Transbay Joint Powers Authority documents show. In a statement released earlier in the day, Zabaneh said the crack appears to be a “localized issue and we have no information that suggests it is widespread.” But he added, “It is our duty to confirm this before we allow public access to the facility.” The transit center was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli — the same firm that designed the adjoining Salesforce Tower — and was built by the joint venture of construction companies Webcor and Obayashi. “We are just beginning work and do not have any information about the cause or causes of the issue at this time,” Webcor said in a statement. All buses to and from the center were rerouted to the Temporary Transbay Terminal at Howard and Main streets, which was used for the past eight years while the new center was under construction. Fremont Street, one of the main morning commute arteries off of the Bay Bridge, was also ordered closed to vehicles and pedestrians between Howard and Mission streets, and was to remain closed until at least noon Wednesday. Officials encouraged motorists not to drive downtown. “Our advice for drivers, if it is at all possible, is to avoid that part of the downtown,” San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Rose said. The cracked beam is the latest in a series of problems at the center. It was conceived 17 years ago as the “Grand Central Station of the West,” for buses, trains and high-speed rail — but rail service remains a distant hope, tied up in funding shortages, the uncertainty of California’s high-speed rail project and the logistical challenges of extending Caltrain tracks north from Mission Bay. Finances have long proved challenging. The center wound up costing $800 million more than expected and required a $260 million bailout from San Francisco to complete its construction. No sooner did the center open — an opening that was delayed by nine months — than the walkway that circles the nearly three-block-long rooftop park began crumbling. The shutdown is certain to put pressure on other transit options, but BART officials say they already are operating at full capacity, thanks largely to those 170,000 visitors attending Dreamforce at Moscone Center, where Howard Street is closed between Third and Fourth streets as part of the convention. “We are maxed out,” said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost, noting that the district had 613 cars in service Tuesday, compared with the usual 595. The cracked beam is also reminiscent of the cracked bolts that plagued the eastern span of the Bay Bridge. “Big projects are increasingly complex,” said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which helped provide funding for both the bridge and the transit center. “No doubt a full investigation will be completed, and the engineers will get to the bottom of it.” San Francisco Mayor London Breed declined comment Tuesday, deferring instead to officials at the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. Supervisor Jane Kim, who sits on the authority and also represents the district at City Hall, said shutting down the building was “absolutely the right thing to do.” “We cannot put any of our residents or workers at risk,” she said. Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who has been critical of the project’s high costs, said he hoped the problem was a “one-off.” “They still owe us a quarter of a billion dollars,” Peskin said. “Happy Transit Week.” Chronicle staff writer Kurtis Alexander contributed to this story. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross<doc-sep>The discovery of a major crack in a support beam forced the shutdown of San Francisco’s brand new Transbay Transit Center during peak commute hours Tuesday — and Twitter users took the news with typical cool-headed aplomb. “This building is doomed!” “The city is falling apart in more ways than one.” “That whole area feels like a death trap,” wrote a woman named Nette, who said in her profile that she’s a San Francisco native. Indeed, the $2.2 billion terminal sits in the shadow of San Francisco’s infamous Millennium Tower, the victim of another kind of crack — in a 36th-floor window — of mysterious, ominous origins. Plus there’s all the sinking and tilting that has made that building an unexpected tourist favorite. The neighborhood does seem a bit cursed of late. Just a month after the transit center opened, the walkways on the rooftop garden started to crumble into potholes. Tuesday’s closure, of course, was much more dramatic. The Twitterverse always delights in the misfortune of San Francisco’s elite. Or actually, anyone. But the timing was especially bad — or great, depending on your appreciation of schadenfreude — for the transit center shutdown: •It happens to be San Francisco Transit Week. •And it’s the week of Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual major conference with more than 150,000 attendees in town. Salesforce paid to have its name on the transit center. •In fact, commuters were being evacuated from the transit center at the exact moment that Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff was giving his keynote speech. •Oh, and it’s Benioff’s birthday. “Sell all your stock in Salesforce immediately,” wrote one totally calm Twitter user who lives in Spokane, according to his profile. “Also sell all your stock in San Francisco. And move away. Move away fast. It’s sinking. All of it. “Goodbye, San Francisco,” he said. More than one Twitter user pointed out that a blimp printed with “#failsforce” — paid for by a Salesforce rival — had been bobbing around the area all afternoon. How appropriate, they said. How deliciously appropriate. “Be careful out there in the city tonight folks,” wrote one man, “not just because there are a bunch of people from out of town who love Salesforce, but because their buildings are cracking up...” Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com<doc-sep>
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco officials shut down the city’s celebrated new $2.2 billion transit terminal Tuesday after discovering a crack in a support beam under the center’s public roof garden. Coined the “Grand Central of the West,” the Salesforce Transit Center opened in August near the heart of downtown after nearly a decade of construction. It was expected to accommodate 100,000 passengers each weekday, and up to 45 million people a year. The center is operated by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority and its executive director, Mark Zabaneh, said workers discovered the crack around 10 a.m. while replacing roofing tiles. Zabaneh said engineers spent the day inspecting the damage and decided to shut the station around 5 p.m., just as the afternoon rush hour started. “The beam is cracked,” Zabaneh said. “The behavior of the beam is unpredictable.” Zabaneh said the crack was found near a weld on a stress-bearing horizontal beam. He said he did not know how long the crack was, but he told reporters that American steel was used in the center’s construction. Zabaneh said the cause and the extent of the damage were unknown and the decision to close the terminal was made out of an “abundance of caution.” He said structural engineers would be working at the building Tuesday night to assess whether it is safe for people to return. Buses were rerouted to a temporary transit center about two blocks away that was used during the center’s construction. A downtown street that runs under the beam was also ordered closed indefinitely, causing traffic chaos at the same time some streets were closed for a conference sponsored by Salesforce that was expected to draw 170,000 attendees. Enveloped in wavy white sheets of metal veil, the five-level center includes a bus deck, a towering sky-lit central entrance hall and a rooftop park with an outdoor amphitheater. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the complex faced delays in putting out contracts to bid, and the winning bids were ultimately higher than expected. The terminal’s cost rose from $1.6 billion at its 2010 groundbreaking to more than $2 billion in 2016 because of what one analyst called “optimistic assumptions,” according to the Chronicle. The project, a commanding presence in the city’s South of Market neighborhood, is financed by land sales, federal stimulus grants, district fees and taxes, bridge tolls, and federal and state funds. It sits adjacent to another dubious landmark, the so-called sinking condominium, Millennium Tower, which has settled about 18 inches since it opened over a former landfill in 2009. Homeowners have filed multiple lawsuits against the developer and the city, some alleging that construction of the transit center caused the Millennium Tower’s sinking. Zabaneh said he did not believe that the cracked beam was related to ongoing problems at Millennium Tower. The online business software company Salesforce, which opened its adjacent 61-story Salesforce Tower three months ago, bought naming rights to the center in 2017 as part of a 25-year, $110 million sponsorship agreement.