one of the steel beams in the ceiling. you're looking at sky 7. this is a live view above the old temporary transbay center, which has been suddenly reopened again. you can see there are going to be long lines of people and buses pulled up to that area. they were up until a few minutes ago. it was fenced off to the public. >> why did they send the buses there and all the people go in there? it's because at the salesforce transit center, pretty new, they have that fissure there that larry was talking about on the third level bus deck on the eastern side of that center near fremont street. you can see it right there. that is the roof you're looking at. out of just an abundance of caution there, the transbay joint powers authority will temporarily close that transit center as they work to repair that issue. that steel beam found way crack, a fissure all operators meantime will provide bus service out of the nearby temporary transbay terminal. the old one at howard and main streets. >> in a statement, the transbay

authority says, quote, the safety of everyone who visits the salesforce transit center is our highest priority. while it's a localized issue, we have no information that suggests it's widespread, it's our duty to confirm this before we allow public access to the a filth. the transit center opened with a lot of fanfare last month. thousands of people came to check out the building at an open house. the weekend before it officially opened for business. that was on august 12th. okay. pardon me. another live look from sky 7. this is the old terminal. officials thought they would never see this again. people lining up, using that area to get on buses going home. it's certainly not clear right now if this is going to last several hours or perhaps days as they inspect that beam. the structural integrity, that crack discovered. by the way, that's a beam that supports the bus deck. buses rerouted right now to the old transbay center as the new

salesforce transit center is shut down. >> with that, we say good evening. thanks for joining us. i'm larry beil. >> i'm kristen sze. robert, this is a time when a lot of the buses will be picking people up, taking them home. what's going on with the operations? >> you're right. this is our rush hour. as you outlined in your show, the cjta discovered a crack in a beam in a ceiling above the bus deck. as you know, the bus deck is the third level of the transit center. that is where all of our operations exist. ac transit operates 27 transbay bus lines out of the temporary -- in and out of salesforce transit center. to ensure that our rider safety isn effect and we continue our service, we have diverted all 27 of the transbay bus lines to the old temporary terminal. that old terminal is located at

howard and bill street. that diversion will remain in place until further notice. we anticipate that this is affecting about 7,000 riders. that's roughly the number that crossed the bridge during the p.m. hours. for riders who are listening to us right now who have yet to head out for their commute home, what we want you to know is that ac transit ambassadors are on scene at the salesforce transit center. they're easy to identify. they are outfitted in fluorescent colored safety vests. they're outside the center as well as inside. they will be directed riders to the appropriate bus bays, the detoured bus bays and providing the most accurate information. >> we're showing a live picture of one of the ambassadors you're talking about directing passengers and everybody is trying to figure out where to go here. we have resources on our website at abc7news.com and our app to

help people get through this. when we talk about this crack, this fissure, how big a crack are we talking about? how serious does this appear to be? we don't know the condition of the building itself. we're working chosely with the tjpa to get a better determination of what's happened. as you might expect, our focus is ensuring that our riders' safety is the utmost priority and that we continue our heavily used service between the east bay and san francisco. so our primary focus at this hour was to ensure that those riders had a safe location where they could both board and off-board the buses. we know that is happening at the temporary terminal. we are asking that everyone exercise a bit of caution. because, of course, this was sudden and imminent. there may be slowdowns, some delays as all of the buses make their way back into the temporary terminal. but the service is operating. >> robert, i know this is early

on in the investigation. but how was the fissure discovered? >> that's a great question. the joint powers authority would be the best source to identify that. all we know is that about 3:30 this arn we received notice from tjpa that they were looking into an issue and that initially they were cordoning off a specific area of bus bays and we received an updated notice that the salesforce transit center would close imminently. we began an earnest effort of getting all of our buses out of the salesforce transit center and into the temporary terminal. >> it's a pretty large logistical transition here. to orient people, what's the distance between the old and the new facilities. just for people who have to make the walk or factor that into their commute. >> it's approximately two blocks. it's not a long walk. for those who were are

accustomed to riding buses, it's similar to a month ago where we directed riders from their existing ride from the temporary terminals to the new salesforce transit center. it's not a long walk. that's the good part of it. again, the ambassadors are ensuring that everyone, even if uch forgotten that, to ensure you're back on to the route. once again -- >> robert, can we talk about the extra wrinkle, the extra layer of challenge this happening exactly on opening day of the dream force convention at the moscone center. ironically, their name is on the new transit center. that is tens of extras of people who would normally not be taking the bus in that area tonight. >> so many of the people who attend that convention are -- right there. maybe others who --

accommodations of the east bay. >> it may create a bump in ridership. at this hour represented a significant increase in ridership right now. the number of people. take the bridge back and forth. >> thank you so much. thank you. some video that we got into the newsroom a few moments ago. center from the ground and you can see the police here and i assume we're going to see some safety inspectors trying to figure out what's going on with that fissure. it's a gorgeous facility. unfortunately, they have this fissure, this crack that somebody spotted. obviously, when you're talking about a construction project of this size, structural integrity is key. we're talking about tens of thousands of people going through there in the days and weeks ahead, if not millions when you go long-term. but you got to make sure this is

a safe structure. >> in fact, san francisco police are helping with that mission to keep people safe right now. so as we look at the sky map 7 picture, we want to bring in officer grace with the san francisco police department. thank you so much for joining us. >> no problem. thanks for having me. >> can you talk about the extent of your efforts in helping with the evacuations of the salesforce transit center? >> yes. we're evacuating the east wing. there's going to be a road closure on fremont between mission and howard. that's going thob shut down to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. as you can imagine, fremont is a major thoroughfare. this is going to, unfortunately, cause a lot of congestion on the roadway. we're just asking everyone to have a little bit of patience. this is not something that anyone planned for. we're going to work together to adapt the situation. hopefully at 5:30, the transbay joint powers authority will give

more information exactly of how the crack affects the structural integrity of the building. as of right now, we're evacuating the east wing. >> can you clarify. did you see fremont between mission and howard that is currently closed? >> yes, that's correct. this is in addition to howard between third and fourth and from the moscone center, which is closed because of the dream force convention? >> that's correct. there's a hard closure from the bay bridge due to the dream force convention. there's really only -- we were blessed in that sense. to not have vehicles coming off. that would cause the situation even more. there are many road closures in downtown san francisco today. we're just asking everyone for a little bit of patience in getting home today as we deal with this unplanned situation. >> basically, it's going to be gridlock in this area. that's the bottom line. >> looking at what you're broadcasting, it's going to be

gridlock down there. there's possible way to take even public transportation, ac transit is routing all their buses to the nearby temporary bus shelters. so allow yourself extra time and contact your loved ones to make arrangements if you can. if you need to be home at a certain time to see if family or someone can help you out at home. >> rob from ac transit was telling us that was discovered at 3:30. the fact that you immediately began evacuating people, does that indicate some sense that there could be imminent danger? how big is that fissure? >> no, i can't tell you exactly how large the fissure is. it's something that we do in an abundance of caution. as the structural engineers look at everything and i'm sure the transbay joint powers authority will tell you in just about 20 minutes on their news conference, they'll be able to tell you how imminent the threat

is. we do go off what they say. if they say you need to evacuate the east wing, we'll do that. for some reason the situation changes and we need to evacuate the -- we'll go ahead and do that as well. >> grace, we appreciate the time. obviously, this is going to be an ongoing situation. it's not going -- any time you have any kind of issue with structural integrity of a building this size, this will take a while to resolve. we appreciate your time. i have a feeling we'll be speaking with you again soon. >> i'll keep you updated on the latest. >> thanks so much. larry, it's worth noting that once again the new salesforce transit center just opened about a month ago. $1.5 billion to build. major infrastructure project in the city of san francisco. this is the hub of where all those cross bay transbay buses come and go. this is the peak of the afternoon commute on a day that

was already predicted to be horrible due to the salesforce convention, the dream force convention going on about two blocks away from this at the moscone center. so now once again, we want to remind our viewers just joining us that sky 7 is currently live over the old transbay center where people are now going to catch their buses for their rides home across the bay. this is only a couple blocks away from the new terminal. however, there's going to be confusion. there are cars being detoured that drivers may not be clear where they're going. there are detours. so that area not only will it be slow and gridlock. by the way we're working on pulling up the latest traffic maps for you to help you find the quickest way home. we're pulling up sky map 7 right now to show you where you need to go right now if you want to catch a bus at beal and howard. larry, think about both the extra volumes of people, the traffic that is now going around inires tryindetours and here we

map. >> i imagine we'll see a lot of red. red highlights stoppages and we'll see what the map shows. to illustrate your point, the timing of this is poor. to put it mildly. again, you can see you've got the line of buses here and i assume what we're looking at is the buses that are being rerouted to the old center where the passengers will have to walk as opposed to the new center which at least is partially closed because of that fissure, that crack in one of the steel beams in the ceiling. if you're trying to -- you can see the buses making their way to the old center to carry what will be thousands of passengers. >> the headline is go do what you used to do. a couple of months ago in terms of bus transportation in the downtown area. >> that's where muni and ac transit, that's where they're going right now.

that's what you're looking at. the new salesforce transit center is right now closing back -- we have a full commuter resource page on our website. details on the changes that transit agencies are making. you want to enable push alerts to get the latest details to help you and your family get home tonight. >> just going to have to be patient. it's going to take a while for it to unfold and figure out what kind of situation they really have. any time you're doing a building inspection, especially of this magnitude, they're going to be extremely careful. >> especially after the millennium tower situation in san francisco. >> just that far away. >> not that far away. >> the city is -- keeping an eye on potential structural damage. that could lead to bigger things. they're not taking any chances with this new $1.5 billion transit center that opened last

month and is not being used this afternoon due to a fissure that was discovered in a steel beam that holds up the third floor bus deck. so right now if if you wants to catch your bus home, go to the terminal. a block away. we'll keep you you could generate yourat home.rgy, or to save energy,

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out of san francisco. you're looking at a shutdown transbay terminal after a crack in a steel beam on the third floor was found and we're going to take you through the video here and you'll see it as we see it. as police have this area cordoned off to make sure that nobody gets close or in any sort of danger. to highlight, we don't know that there's imminent danger. there's an abundance of caution being displayed. we don't know the size of the crack involved or the magnitude of the situation. they're going to be overly cautious. >> you see the confused people. all right. chris nguyen arrived on the scene at the old transbay terminal. is that where you are right now, chris? where people are boarding the buses? >> reporter: actually, kristen, i'm a few blocks from the new terminal. in front of salesforce tower. quite a confusing scene for

passengers trying to get to the new transit center tonight. those passengers are being directed to the temporary transbay terminal at howard and main until the inspections are complete. the closure is effect immediately. we're currently at first and mission where the mta has the area blocked off. right now, first street between market and howard is closed as those inspections are being made because of the issue that you guys have been mentioning. we've been in touch with the joint powers authority. it's closed. the salesforce transit center out of caution. passengers being directed to the old transbay terminal tonight as you can imagine, traffic is a nightmare especially on market street into the other surface streets. of course, the area near moscone center because ofrefoe. all of this combining for a major problem in downtown san

francisco. >> chris, i know it's early in the process of inspecting that beam and possibly other ones to be certain that everything is going to be okay there. but are they giving you any sense for how long this might take? does it look like they're hunkering down for hours or perhaps longer? >> that's a great question, kristen. i know in five minutes or so, the joint powers authority will be holding a press conference to greet the media on everything that's going on right now. again, i'm looking at first and mission. they've got mta out here. police officers are out here blocking off the streets. they've just put up a yellow caution tape to block off the areas, which is new in the past ten minutes or so. so for now, you know, major question looms as to how long it's going to take for the roads to reopen. >> chris, i understand you sweetswee tweeted out some video. can you talk us through that

video? >> reporter: it was showing the closures larry on first street between market and howard. it took us a pretty long time just to be able to make a right off the market on to first street. so we were allowed in so that we could get to the scene closer and bring you as much of the pictures as we could. >> we may have lost chris there. i think we lost chris by phone. we'll try to re-establish with him. he's near the scene there, near the salesforce tower, actually. very close to the salesforce -- >> oh, goodness. >> leading to this horrible congestion in the city right now. purple means closed. those are the sections that we're talking about. we talked about first, that is the small chunk of purple you see there. that is right by where the transit center is. of course, you see that purple

stretch as well by the moscone center. >> that's for dream force. >> tens of thousands of extra people there today because of the start of the convention. now, the brand new $1.5 billion transit center where the buses come and go is closed due to a fissure found in a steel beam, third floor, holds at the bus deck. >> i'm just looking at this real-time traffic map here. it looks like a bad game of pac-man. if you happen to be on one of the stretches of yellow where you're moving, you're moving into areas that are either closed or neighboring along in a red. it's all backed up. if you're trying to get to the upper deck of the bay bridge to get to the east bay, that's going to take for r. pretty much wherever you're going, unless on the embarcadero, on the right-hand

side of the screen -- >> battery is the stretch of red down from just to the right of chinatown. that's, of course, the main way to cross market street if you're in the financial district. so that is red. also, market street in that area. both directions, red means super, super slow. purple means closed. you can see just about everything is either red or yellow or purple. not much green. even the broadway tunnel. if you look at that. that's up by the chinatown marking there. >> it looks like some people are trying to go that route. >> that turned as you said it. >> that's what my mind would be thinking. i'll go that way. that is not even a viable option at this point anymore. it is just total gridlock in san francisco right now as a result of both the combination of the convention, the train dream force and the salesforce transit

center closed and evacuated after they discovered a crack in one of the steel beams in the ceiling of the third level. >> what we're showing here. this is some crude drawing, but the new sales force bus terminal is, the big circle, that's where all the buses were going. the arrow points to where you have to go now which is a couple of blocks away in order to get -- even if you get on the buses, it's not like you're going anywhere quickly. the buses are going to be in the same traffic that everybody else is in. >> very true. in the meantime. >> if you can get to b.a.r.t., i would highly recommend b.a.r.t. as an option. be a fantastic day to find your way to b.a.r.t. >> my husband rode his motorcycle for that. i chastised him for that. maybe that's a more effective way to get out of city. let's look at sky map 7 showing you the location of the transbay terminal. that's where you want to go to catch your bus at main and howard. but know that there are

breaking news in san francisco. if you were going to the new terminal and want to catch a bus, go to the old terminal, which is a couple of blocks away. th

quick new information on the salesforce transit center, which

is closed, evacuated. we got word from authorities saying they have started a thorough inspection of all steel beams and they won't

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