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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.
Thu May 13, 2021 - Southeast Edition #10
Lori Lovely â CEG Correspondent
There are 13 cranes on the project, some large enough to drill a 10-ft. shaft.
The state of Arkansas embarked on its biggest highway construction program ever undertaken by the
Arkansas Department of Transportation, and the people couldn t be more excited. Arkansas is a small state with a population of just three million, but this project touches every corner of the state, with a total of 36 projects in 19 corridors, said Keli Wylie, administrator of the CAP Program and alternative project delivery administrator.
The goals of the Connecting Arkansas Program include improving transportation connections between cities; increasing capacity by widening highways to four or more lanes; improving safety; and easing congestion. Supplementary aims of the program are to support more than 40,000 jobs; drive economic development by making Arkansas locations more desirable to companies to locate and conduct bu
Urgent 911 Calls After Major Crack Found In Interstate 40 Bridge Linking Arkansas & Tennessee
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 Wednesday.
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. Republican U.S. senators also pointed out the need for infrastructure spending while criticizing President Joe Biden s plan.
The six-lane bridge Hernando DeSoto Bridge into Memphis was shut down Tuesday afternoon after inspectors found a significant fracture in one of two 900-foot horizontal steel beams that are crucial for the bridge s integrity, said Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
Memphis Commercial Appeal
The crack in the Hernando de Soto M Bridge, officials said, is on a beam that is crucial to the bridge s structural integrity and is located near the middle of the M. This fracture had the potential of becoming a catastrophic event, said Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
That possible catastrophe was prevented, she said, due to maintaining routine inspections of the bridge, which were underway Tuesday when the crack was discovered. Officials said it is most likely the fracture is due to bridge fatigue; the bridge has been open to traffic for nearly 50 years and remains an important component of regional logistics.
Crack in I-40 bridge shuts down traffic between Tennessee, Arkansas
Bridge, as well as Mississippi River below, remained closed as of Thursday morning Crack in I-40 bridge that connects Arkansas and Tennessee. (Photo: ARDOT)
ICYMI – the #40MSRiverBridge remains closed until further notice. A significant fracture was found during a routine inspection. We and @myTDOT are working together to safeguard all travelers (road & water) and then reopen these paths to the public as soon as safely possible. pic.twitter.com/D6DXwlH5Cf Arkansas DOT (@myARDOT) May 12, 2021
Updated May 13, 2021, 2 p.m. ET.
The six-lane Interstate 40 bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee was shut down Tuesday afternoon after authorities said they found a crack in the center span. As of early Thursday afternoon, the bridge was still closed in both directions, according to Tennessee and Arkansas road closure maps..