Mystic Bridge Was Stuck Again. But Guess Why!

It’s so hot, the steel on the Mystic River Bridge has expanded over the past few days by more than 1 and ¾ inches which has caused the security gate locking system, which is computer programed, to not click like it’s supposed to hence the 20-minute shut down following the 3:40 p.m. opening, project manager Brent Church just explained to Patch.

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You’d have to be a bridge engineer to understand the jargon, but think of it like this: The heat and humidity has swelled your front door to the point were it’s tough to close it and get the locks to line up.

“Steel expands and with this heat, we’re talking almost two inches,” Church said.

But that doesn’t explain the half-dozen other times the gate has gotten stuck and the bridge has been shut down because of it. In those cases, Church said, the new system the only one of its kind in the state “on a moveable bridge; it’s programmable logic,” is a system so new regular Department of Transportation folks are not yet familiar so Ciambro engineers have stuck around to to help. Church said that while today he literally had a worker under the bridge to make sure the switch operated properly and crews are rigging steel plates to handle the problem, “at least we know what it is,” Church said. He said the design engineers will be coming to the site.

“It’s a design issue,” he said. “We have to look at doing something else.”

“The bridge itself is mechanically perfect. This (security gate) locking system is a design issue and we’ll work that out,” he said.