After 26 years, the and more than $5.1 billion over budget, we are still getting story, after story, about the Bay Bridge.

With a total cost of $6.5 billion why are there still so many problems with this project?

The tastes fiasco is corrosion affecting 400 steel rods that secure the bridge tower to its foundation and now Caltrans officials acknowledge more cracked rods.

And here is the key quote in this latest issue:

If the rods must be replaced, Caltrans will face a difficult challenge, because their bottom portions are inaccessible. Last year, [Robert] Bea [enginnering professor emeritus at UC Berkeley and an expert in risk management] called that design choice a violation of a fundamental engineering principle – “to engineer explicitly for repairability.”

Read full story here  http://goo.gl/IGa4Wq