Inspector Fired After Failing To Notice Major Crack In Memphis Bridge iheart.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from iheart.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Vital Memphis bridge shut down after officials find structural crack
Joe Rondone/The Commercial Appea
Transportation officials discovered a crack Tuesday in a major artery in American infrastructure, meaning it could be closed for months.
The Hernando de Soto Bridge on Interstate 40 in Memphis, Tennessee, was shut down Tuesday and will be closed for emergency repairs, according to a news release from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).
Tennessee shares responsibility for the bridge with the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT), which discovered the crack during a routine inspection and immediately shut down the bridge, the release said.
“For the motoring public’s safety, the bridge will be entirely shut down while crews investigate the crack’s extent further and then repair the problem, which could take some time,” the TDOT release read.
Share this article
The U.S. Coast Guard said 44 vessels with a total of 709 barges are now in the queue as a 1-miles stretch of the Mississippi River remains closed after a large crack was discovered in the I-40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee on Wednesday.
A waterway restriction closes the river to all vessel traffic between mile marker 736 and mile marker 737.
“River reopening is dependent on [Tennessee Department of Transportation] inspection results,” the Coast Guard said on Twitter.
Photo shows part of the crack in the I-40
bridge. TDOT Photo
The crack was discovered in a crucial structural support beam near the center span of the bridge on Wednesday during a routine inspection of the bridge by the Arkansas Department of Transportation, which immediately shut the bridge down to road traffic.
May.12.2021
There’s good news and bad news for anyone using the Interstate 40 (I-40) Hernando DeSoto Bridge crossing the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tennessee.
First, the good news: No one has been hurt.
Now for the bad news: The bridge is entirely shut down, and traffic has been rerouted as work crews investigate a crack in the bridge and begin emergency repairs.
The bridge carries I-40 across the Mississippi River between West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis. Responsibility for the bridge is shared by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT).
During a routine inspection, an ArDOT contractor discovered “a crack in the bottom side of the bridge truss” and “immediately shut down the bridge,” TDOT announced in a statement.