A routine bridge inspection of the I-40 Hernando de Soto Bridge over the Mississippi River revealed a crack that requires further investigation, according to Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) officials.
Repairs to I-40 Bridge Could Take Months
Transportation officers and police block an Interstate 40 onramp to the bridge over the Mississippi River near downtown Memphis, Tenn., on May 11. (Adrian Sainz/AP)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. Repairs to the Interstate 40 bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee could take months after a crack was found in the span, forcing thousands of trucks and cars to detour and shutting down shipping on a section of the Mississippi River, a transportation official said May 12.
A congressional Democrat from Tennessee flagged the crack as a warning sign of the urgent need to act on fixes to the nation’s infrastructure.
TDOT working to get answers on I-40 bridge reopening timeline Drone video shows closed I-40 bridge over Mississippi River By Parker King | May 12, 2021 at 6:26 PM CDT - Updated May 12 at 7:56 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The Tennessee Department of Transportation has been given emergency management authority by the U.S. Department of Transportation to move forward with an emergency contract to make repairs to the I-40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge.
A crack was found in one of the bridge’s support beams during a routine inspection by Michael Baker International, a consulting firm contracted by the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) to perform a routine inspection on the bridge.
People familiar with the matter told
Reuters that Motiva Enterprises LLC’s 607,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery shut down its 195,000-bpd VPS-4 CDU and 80,000-bpd VPS-2 CDU along with its 49,000-bpd reformer and 19,200-bpd lube oil hydrocracker.
This temporary idling of the two CDUs reduces production at Motiva’s refinery by 45 percent. The company declined to discuss any further the status of individual units at the Port Arthur refinery.
There is a third CDU at the Motiva refinery that is still in operation. It is the largest of the three with a 325,000-bpd reformer and VPS-5 CDU. The purpose of CDUs, by the way, is to break down crude oil into the feedstocks for all other units at the refinery.