Heat Ruins Major New York City Bridge

As more days produce scorching temperatures, aging infrastructure is often damaged, wrecked, or removed from commission. One recent example is the Third Avenue Bridge in the Bronx borough of New York City. The bridge can open for river traffic. Recently, during a 95-degree F day, it was stuck open as the extreme heat warped part of the steel structure.

The part of the bridge that was stuck was eventually repaired, but the damage to the flow of traffic had already been done. The problem could recur since freeing the bridge was not part of any permanent solution.

About 60,000 cars and trucks cross the Third Avenue Bridge each day. When it is damaged, traffic has to be reported to one of the other bridges that cross from the Bronx into Manhattan. Some productivity is undermined, although there is no way to say how much.

American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) claims that about a third of the nation’s 618,000 bridges need structural repair, rehabilitation, or replacement. Few carry the amount of traffic of the Third Avenue Bridge. However, some are the only means to cross waterways. In these cases, productivity can be significantly affected. This happened with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, although the cause was a shipping accident.

Heat and extreme cold cause metal to warp. This will soon affect more and more aging bridges.

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