mr. vecchio said, we're testing the bolting and bolt testing. we want to make sure that there's no physical stress to those elements. so thank you for your time, and i invite my questions. >> questions from board members? no questions? yes. >> so it looks like the cracks that had started at the access holes in the original design, when you showed the repair, it didn't look like it had the same access holes, so are they not shown or are they not necessary -- >> the repair is to actually take a continuance plate and bolt it on so there is no welding in this fix. it's essentially a bolted connection and it bypasses that area. >> okay. and so what was the purpose of the access holes to begin with if we don't need them. >> because the original design is a welded girder. so now, given what we have, we feel a bolted connection is simpler. >> so let me try that another way. the access hole was to get the welding equipment in to do the welding of the original buildup? >> correct. >> okay. >> just one clarification. when -- i think you said that the build

mr. vecchio revealed, that will probably be before this fix is installed. regardless, i think, and i think most people who have been looking at this agree that this is a pretty fault-free approach not to have to worry about any further revelations from the finite elements analysis. >> director chang, i think that the peer review panel is next. he can shed some light -- because we would not move forward until we get their concurrence on the design fix. as bruce mentioned, the preliminary design is being submitted for their review. >> okay. so we'll hear from the peer review panel. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> okay. now that we've heard from our experts, we did want our m.t.c. peer review panel to weigh in on the data received, and for this segment of the presentation, andy fromier from the m.t.c. will present. >> good morning, chair nuru and members of the board. my name is andrew fromier. i'm the deputy director of operations at the m.t.c. commission. on november 15, m.t.c. was asked by the mayors of oakland and san francisco to find the cause of t

mr. robert vecchio to speak to the material findings out in the field. >> good morning, directors. i'm robert vecchio. i'm the chief executive at l.p.i., inc, in new york, and we have tested the samples that have been removed from the transit center. in this slide presentation that i have here today, there's some information -- some of the slides are here for informational purposes only, and i'll probably go through some of those quickly. there's a timeline on the first slide, which i'm sure most of you are aware of, what occurred and how it occurred, the sequence of those events. to inform you of what the girder in question looks like. this is a shot of the typical appearance of the fremont and first street girders. the area of interest is going to be right here where the cursor is right here. that's the bottom flange where the passenger passes through that drops down to the bus deck level. these are a couple of photographs showing one of the fracks in the fremont street girder. a frackture, as you can see is this area here, and it started back at this access hole. [please stand b