Legislators of both parties are hopping mad and Governor Schwarzenegger's office says he's taking it "seriously." The cause of their concern is a report in the Oakland Tribune about 15 whistle-blowing welders who've brought the FBI down on Caltrans and private contractors, putting California's biggest public works project in danger of collapse. The new $6 billion San Francisco Bay Bridge could be riddled with faulty welds and its massive concrete pilings might have to be torn apart to see if they're strong enough to hold 282,000 cars every day. The new span, which runs from Yerba Buena Island in the middle of the bay to Emeryville on the east, is designed to replace part of the existing bridge that collapsed during an earthquake in 1989. We talk to California legislators, a professor of construction risk management and the reporter who broke the story.
- Reporter's Notebook: Bowers Museum Takes CT Scans of Ancient Egyptian Mummies
At the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, radiologists and museum curators are looking at state-of-the art CT scans of ancient Egyptian mummies. The mummies, thought to be 2000 to 3000 years old, are on loan from the British Museum and are part of an exhibition scheduled to open on April 17. Nigel Strudwick, curator of the British Museum's Egyptian Collection, has more on what scientists hope to learn from this "virtual autopsy."
New Bay Bridge Project
San Francisco-Oakland Bridge East Span Seismic Safety Project
Holstage's article on FBI's investigation into Bay Bridge safety
British Museum on its Mummy exhibition
Bower Museum's Mummies: Death and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
