CHESAPEAKE, Va. — The Great Bridge bridge in Chesapeake appeared to be functioning normally Wednesday afternoon, a day after the heat caused the bridge to get stuck open.
We noticed after about 20 minutes that the bell was still ringing, so we were curious as to why it hadn’t gone down yet," said Ann Dumenigo, who works at a business within eyesight of the bridge.
Watch: Great Bridge Bridge now open after closure due to heat-related malfunction
In video taken Tuesday, you can hear the bell Dumenigo is referring to, signaling the Great Bridge drawbridge is up.
The video was shot by Stella Solorzano. She works at the same business as Dumenigo.
Also in the video, you can see firefighters spraying water on the bridge to try to get it to close.
“The bridge gets stuck a lot, but not to that extent where they couldn’t get it back down. So to see the guys up on the ladder, right away we went out there and started making a video," said Solorzano.
Watch: Cooling centers to go to across Hampton Roads to beat the heat
Wednesday afternoon, water was again being sprayed on the bridge but this time by what appeared to be a work crew working on the bridge.
In a statement, the city of Chesapeake said the bridge got stuck open Tuesday because the recent extreme heat caused the bridge joints to expand.
The water firefighters sprayed on the bridge was meant to cool the joints down to get them to shrink back to their normal size.
Watch: HVAC repair crews busy as temperatures start to heat up
Dumenigo would like to see area tolls reduced and possibly a road expansion to help in situations like this.
“A lot of people could’ve used the Dominion Bridge, but I know they don’t like to use it because there’s a toll on it. I know the 168 Bypass, it’s already two lanes on each side. It may be time to expand it," Dumenigo said.
The statement from the City of Chesapeake goes on to say the city will monitor the bridge deck temperature on all of the city’s movable bridges during hot weather and may have extended openings and closures to cool them down.
