Sacramento County bridge seizes up in summer heat. What's being done to cool it off?
WALNUT GROVE — The Walnut Grove Bridge in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta sometimes seizes up in the summer heat.
Since the 1950s, the bridge has connected communities from the south to Sacramento. It also opens to allow boats to pass below.
The summer scorchers cause the metal on the bridge to expand, squeezing the decades-old steel together and creating a gap. That means if the bridge is open, it may not close correctly.
"It's kind of a big distraction, a lot of backed-up cars," said Gage Chose, who works at Morris Motors near the Walnut Grove Bridge.
The Walnut Grove Volunteer Fire Department often responds to the bridge when it gets stuck.
"Sometimes we're out here six or seven times a day," said Taylor Van Loben Sels, a volunteer firefighter for Walnut Grove.
She said they have to hose down the edges of the bridge with water to cool it off so the bridge can reconnect and traffic can resume.
"Maintaining the availability to respond here multiple times a day is a little strenuous for us," Van Loben Sels said.
That is why Sacramento County installed a drip sprinkler system to cool off the bridge periodically to prevent a sometimes over 20-minute shutdown.
"I would say it's probably pretty frustrating for people considering how long it takes for the traffic to finally get over," Chose said.
Even a less than five-minute cool down from the drip sprinkler system caused dozens of cars to get backed up.
"Once we know the heat is coming, we have water tenders that are staged nearby," Sacramento County spokesperson Matt Robinson said.
Robinson showed CBS13 the water tender they bring in during 103-plus-degree heat to avoid a call to the fire department. They also have a bridge operator stationed in a control room daily. Their job is to monitor the temperature and when it's time to water down the bridge.
"With the heat we've had, it's been doing a number on our bridges," Robinson said.
Robinson said the county will continue using these solutions anytime the Walnut Grove Bridge can't take the heat.
