Broken beam at $2 billion Salesforce Transit Center irks sponsoring agencies

Two days into the broken beam broadside at the Salesforce Transit Center, some of the people whose public agencies are paying for it are decidedly unhappy.

"Surprised. Shocked even. Incredibly disappointed. I think that's a view held by a lot of people," said Randy Rentschler of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, who added that the MTC has put in some $350 million -- mostly toll money -- into the Transbay Terminal project. 

"For those of us who know we have to rebuild our infrastructure, this kind of setback is not a positive thing," said Rentschler.

The state put in well over a half billion dollars. "It's maddening," said San Francisco State Senator Scott Weiner. Weiner says while many major projects have some glitches, this one is particularly irksome.

"This is pretty significant when you talk about now two different supporting, critical supports having cracks in them,” said Weiner. “That's a life safety issue. It goes to the integrity of the structure.”

Money for the $2.2 billion project, including the huge overruns, came from federal, state, regional and local sources – in other words, we the taxpayers and toll payers 

So, will this rise to the level of a major state legislature investigation? 

“To be determined," said Senator Weiner.

For the second straight day, we were unable to make contact with the mayor and for the second straight day, we were unable to get any response from the Department of Building Inspection, which approved all of this.