River traffic has reopened on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, three days after it was closed when a crack was discovered in the Interstate 40 bridge that connects Tennessee and Arkansas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday.
Questions arise about crack in I-40 bridge after 2019 photos resurface
Questions about bridge crack spotted in 2019 By Joyce Peterson | May 14, 2021 at 10:09 PM CDT - Updated May 15 at 1:03 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - One of the benefits of the M-bridge being so beloved and so photographed by Memphians is we have lots of pictures and videos of it.
So, when transportation officials said they didnât know when that bridge fracture happened, a couple of curious citizens started looking through their photo albums.
Amateur photographer David Manasco found a picture he took of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge during a riverboat cruise two years ago. His July 2019 photo shows damage in the same area where a major fracture was discovered Tuesday.
Update Given On I-40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge Repairs Friday, May 14, 2021 The Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Arkansas Department of Transportation are working together to safely repair and reopen the I-40 Bridge over the Mississippi River as soon as possible. After three days of intense and thorough analysis, officials shared the following information.
The Department met with the Structural Team, which included TDOT, ARDOT, FHWA, TDOT’s consultant Michael Baker, Inc., and ARDOT’s consultant HNTB to go over the details of the bridge modeling.
There was a consistent message that, above all, the safety of the public was paramount, and the priority was to 1) open the bridge to river traffic 2) open the bridge to vehicular traffic 3) look at the bridge for long-term issues related to the original failure.
I-40 bridge repair could take two months UPDATE
May 13, 20214:09 pm
BUSY: Heavy traffic creeps slowly across the I-55 bridge at West Memphis, the alternate route for traffic diverted from I-40.
CNN quotes a Tennessee highway official guessing that a repair of a fractured beam in the Interstate 40 bridge at Memphis could take six to eight weeks “minimum” to repair.
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I still don’t think anyone knows for sure.
The hope is that some temporary repairs would allow resumption of traffic on the bridge (and the Mississippi River barge traffic below), but no timeline has been offered yet.
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Repairs to Interstate Bridge Could Take Months
Engineers are still struggling to determine if the bridge can hold its own weight and the weight of construction crews.
May 13th, 2021
In this undated image released by the Tennessee Department of Transportation shows a crack is in a steel beam on the Interstate 40 bridge, near Memphis, Tenn. The Tennessee Department of Transportation says the crack is in a 900-foot steel beam that provides stability for the Interstate 40 bridge that connects Arkansas and Tennessee over the Mississippi River. The bridge was closed Tuesday, May 11, 2021 after inspectors found the crack.
Tennessee Department of Transportation via AP