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Transportation officials are making a plan to prevent the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge from getting stuck again during the next heat wave.

The bridge was closed for several hours at a time on Tuesday and Wednesday because temperatures in the 90s made the metal structure expand. That meant the 126-year-old swing bridge couldn’t open and close throughout the day as it normally does — so transportation officials left the bridge open to boats, but not to vehicle traffic, when temperatures peaked.

“MassDOT is now developing a protocol to maintain the operational status of the bridge during high heat moving forward,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a written statement on Friday.

It’s not clear what that protocol will be. The spokesperson declined to share any details on the plan because “it’s being developed.”

Other bridges from Maine to South Carolina also got stuck during the East Coast heat wave this week, according to media reports. Officials in Chesapeake, Virginia, reportedly sprayed down the Great Bridge Bridge with fire hoses to cool it off. 

The New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge is due for a replacement after more than a century of use. MassDOT proposed a vertical lift bridge design earlier this year, but the design work is still in very early stages. Construction isn’t scheduled to start until 2028.

In the meantime, the bridge could be at risk of closing again when temperatures rise. Heat waves are becoming more frequent, more severe, and longer in U.S. metropolitan areas, according to an analysis of weather data by the Environmental Protection Agency. The National Weather Service is predicting hotter than average temperatures in Massachusetts this summer.

When the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge is closed, the next closest routes across the harbor are I-195 and the Coggeshall Street Bridge, connecting Coggeshall Street in New Bedford with Howland Road in Fairhaven.

Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org

One reply on “MassDOT plans to keep Rt. 6 bridge open during heat waves”

  1. The bridge must be left open to marine traffic:
    Precedence of maritime vessels over other forms of transportation on navigable waterways.
    Regulations specify that any vessel can request a bridge opening at any time, day or night. The federal law grants marine traffic the right-of-way on most navigable waterways.. The Coast Guard regulates the operation of movable bridges, mandating that they open for all vessels upon request, reinforcing the dominance of waterborne transit.

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