Don’t worry: Transbay Transit Center alarms just a test

The Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco hasn’t been doing much since the city closed it in September. As crews continue an exhausting investigation into what caused cracks in key support beams—and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again—the behemoth will at least be making some noise again.

According to an emailed warning from the Transbay Joint Powers Association (TJPA), the building’s external speakers and lights will sound an alarm on April 29 and April 30 starting at 9 a.m.

The power at Salesforce Transit Center will be temporarily shut down [...] from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on each day for routine San Francisco Fire Department inspections and testing. During the power shut down, the building’s fire alarm/public address system will activate.

Since there are speakers both inside and outside the transit center, this will be heard by neighboring buildings so we wanted to provide advanced information and let you know this is only a test.

The building’s public announcement system usually makes a beeping noise when in use. A TJPA spokesperson tells Curbed SF that the building’s strobe lights will go off constantly for the full two-hour spans, but the speakers “will only be heard periodically.”

Note that these are regular tests, unrelated to the current work diagnosing the problem with the building.

According to a Thursday TJPA announcement, inspections on the faulty, $2.2-billion building will be complete by June 1.

However, TJPA still refuses to estimate a date when the building may reopen for service, saying only that they “will announce a reopening date after the review concludes.”