Transportation officials in Arkansas and Tennessee say “a catastrophic event” was averted with the discovery of a fractured steel beam in the I-40 Mississippi River Bridge in Memphis. But it could be months before the busy mile-long crossing is fully repaired and reopened to traffic.
The crack in one of two welded 24 by 32 in., 900-ft-long continuous beams that form one of the bridge’s two tied-arch truss navigation spans was discovered May 11 during a scheduled annual inspection of the nearly 50-year-old crossing, also known as the Hernando De Soto Bridge. According to the Arkansas Dept. of Transportation, which shares the cost of operating the bridge with Tennessee’s DOT, the “fatigue-type fracture” likely resulted from decades of constant traffic movement, rather than a vessel impact or weather-related cause.