Transbay Transit Center could reopen as soon as June

The troubled Transbay Transit Center, its fractured girders now repaired and temporary supports removed, could conceivably open by late June, officials said Thursday.

No opening date has been set because Transbay Joint Powers Authority officials need to wait until an independent review panel of engineers and steel experts from around the country approves a paperwork inspection done by the authority’s engineers.

Officials hope it will happen when the independent review committee meets May 22 in New York. But there’s no guarantee it will.

The review looked not at the fractured girders but at other welds and connections throughout the three-block-long transit center, rooftop park and retail center.

Mark Zabaneh, executive director of the authority, said at a Transbay Joint Powers Authority meeting Thursday that once the independent review panel approves the inspection, it would take about four weeks for buses to roll into the transit center again.

Transbay officials will need to get the center ready to open, allowing bus drivers to get accustomed to the bus deck and access roads, hiring employees and spiffing the place up.

“We need about a four-week period,” Zabaneh said.

The $2.1 billion transit center was open just six weeks when a construction worker spotted a crack in a girder on Sept. 25. A crack in a second girder was found later. The building was closed that afternoon and has remained shuttered since.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan