The Story Behind Weekend-Long Closures of the Rio Vista Bridge

A bridge with a movable deck over a wide river

PHOTO: AnonymousEditor95-WikimediaCommons

RIO VISTA, Calif. (March 24, 2025) – This weekend marks the beginning of a second round of weekend-long closures of the Rio Vista Bridge.

The bridge is a key river crossing on Highway 12, the lone east-west highway traversing the center of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The bridge will shut down from 9 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday, and there will be five more weekend closures between now and late June.

The detour can add two hours to motorists’ trips. For many, that’s enough to derail planned travel to or though the area, a hot spot for water sports, fishing, RV’ing, and agritourism.

Why is such a drastic measure required?

The answer lies in the nature of the work, and the width of the bridge, Caltrans officials say.

The Rio Vista (Helen Madere Memorial) Bridge is just two lanes wide, with pedestrian walkways on each side. A key facet of the upcoming job is replacing the concrete deck on the part of the bridge that lifts when ships need to pass underneath it. Deterioration of the current deck has created ongoing maintenance problems.

Why Not One Lane at a Time?

The 300-foot-long lift span is divided into six sections, and each section runs the full width of the bridge. The work involves removing the existing concrete deck, replacing the 10 steel “stringers” that support the deck, and putting a new 6.25-foot thick deck in place. The work can’t be done one lane at a time because once the stringers are removed, there is no support for the deck.

Why 56 Hours?

The duration of the closure is based on the sheer amount of work that has to be done. The only reason it won’t take longer is that the team is using a new strong, lightweight, and rapid-setting concrete that comes up to strength in just two hours.

Why on Weekends?

The alternative is weekday closures, which would wreak havoc on commutes.

Closure Dates

The planned closures, which may be postponed due to weather, equipment or material availability, or other events, will run from 9 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday on the following dates:

March 28-31
April 11-14
April 25-28
May 9-12
June 6-9
June 20-23

Detour route

Learn More

For real-time Caltrans road information, go to Caltrans’ QuickMap or download the QuickMap app from the App Store or Google Play.