Shipping delays feared across US as crack shutters vital Memphis bridge. What to know
The closure of vital bridge that runs over the Mississippi River and connects Tennessee and Arkansas is sparking concerns about potential shipping delays across the country.
A large crack on the Interstate 40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge was discovered during a routine inspection on Tuesday, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
The bridge was initially closed to interstate and river traffic while crews investigate the extent of the crack and repair the beam, according to the Tennessee Department Transportation, which shares responsibility of the bridge with Arkansas.
But the U.S. Coast Guard on Friday reopened the waterway to all vessel traffic. It said 62 vessels and 1,058 barges had been “in queue.” The Tennessee DOT said there’s no “indication that the bridge is continuing to deteriorate” and that officials went “through an extensive bridge modeling” to ensure it was safe for river traffic to pass.
The bridge remains closed to vehicular traffic, and officials said Monday they don’t have a timeline for reopening.
“It’s a potential disaster,” John Gnuschke, a retired economist previously with the University of Memphis, told Fox 8 on Wednesday. “There is going to be a delay in goods and services across the country, and it’s all going to be because of this bridge.”
In 2020, an average of 35,000 vehicles, 29% of which were trucks, used the bridge daily, The Associated Press reports.
Adel Abdelnaby, a civil engineering professor at the University of Memphis, said the closure could cause a major disruption given the location, Local Memphis reported.
“If you compare it to a body, this looks like the arteries and this is the heart of the country,” Abdelnaby said, according to the station. “So if you cut the heart of the country, it’s like you are giving the country a heart attack by shutting down the I-40 bridge because that is what connects the east and the west to the rest of the U.S.”
The area is the “third heaviest freight corridor in the country,” and the shutdown could lead to delays in fulfilling online orders and restocking store shelves, Martin Lipinski, director of the University of Memphis Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute, told the outlet.
Plans for reopening
Arkansas DOT officials said Monday they hope to have a timeline this week on reopening the bridge.
Rex Vines, deputy director and chief engineer with the department, said during a news conference that officials developed a temporary design plan to stabilize the structure and are refining a design for a permanent repair.
The design was sent to several area contractors with a request for proposals and qualifications, which were due Monday morning. After a contractor is selected for the repairs, officials will develop a timeline for reopening the bridge, Vines said.
Repairs will be done in two phases, Vines said. The first will add steel plating to the outside of the beam to stabilize it and allow work to be done on the structure. The second, which is still being “refined,” could use “high-strength steel rods” to restore strength to the beam and then replace the section with the fracture.
Officials hope the bridge will reopen to traffic after phase two, Vines said.
Officials previously said repairs are expected to be complex.
“Even simple solutions such as welding a repair into place is more complicated with this bridge due to its size and that it’s over water,” Steve Frisbee, Arkansas DOT assistant chief engineer of operations, said last week.
About the closure
Frisbee said in a statement last week that the fracture in the bridge is a “result of wear-and-tear.”
Officials originally said the bridge was previously inspected in September 2020, and crews did not find “any structural deficiencies.”
But the Arkansas DOT said an investigation revealed “earlier evidence of damage on the bridge.”
On Monday, Arkansas DOT Director Lorie Tudor said a photo from a drone video showed the fracture was visible in 2019 and determined the employee who inspected the bridge in 2019 and 2020 “failed to carry out his responsibilities correctly.”
“This is unacceptable and this employee has been terminated as of this morning,” Tudor said. “We are in the process of referring this matter to the proper federal authorities for their determination if further investigation, criminal or otherwise, is warranted.”
Tudor said a “failure in the inspection process” allowed the crack to go unnoticed.
“He didn’t see it,” Tudor said of the fracture. “But the reason he didn’t see it is because he wasn’t following proper protocol. The way we’re supposed to inspect a bridge is you literally go inch by inch along that beam and physically inspect every inch of the beam. That did not happen.”
Tudor said the investigation is ongoing.
This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 7:17 AM with the headline "Shipping delays feared across US as crack shutters vital Memphis bridge. What to know."
