The extreme heat wave this week has forced the New Bedford-Fairhaven bridge to close for a second day in a row, halting marine traffic into the nation’s highest-earning fishing port and forcing cars and trucks to avoid a main artery into the South Coast city.
Starting on Tuesday as temperatures creeped above 100 degrees, the heat forced a rare closure of the 120-year-old bridge, which carries a state highway over the Acushnet River and typically swings open once an hour for boat traffic.
“When the heat is like it is today and yesterday, when the bridge opens, the steel will expand,” said Fairhaven harbormaster Timothy Cox.
When the bridge is slightly larger than usual, Cox said it no longer swings back into place.
That forces state transportation officials to shut down vehicle traffic. It also leaves a large portion of New Bedford’s fishing fleet stuck in the upper harbor.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation kept most of the bridge closed until 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
MassDOT shut down the bridge again around noon on Wednesday as temperatures broke 90 degrees. MassDOT’s latest release said the bridge should reopen around 5 p.m. as the weather begins to cool off for the rest of the week.
Francis Tarasiewicz, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s regional station, said historical data from the weather station in Boston showed Tuesday was the hottest day in June since 1954.
Tarasiewicz said Wednesday was slightly cooler, with temperatures forecast to peak in New Bedford at 94 degrees, before cooling off for the remainder of the week.
Still, climate scientists say heat waves are more extreme and happen more often as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.
MassDOT is planning to replace the New Bedford-Fairhaven bridge within a few years, but for now, it may be shutting down more often than it used to.
