I-40 is a major cross country corridor. This bridge crosses the Mississippi River into Memphis. Connects Arkansas and Tennessee.
They’re rerouting traffic over I-55. This isn’t just a local problem. This could impact the country’s shipping. River passage under the bridge is also closed.
There’s a press conference later today. I hope this isn’t a long closure.
Arkansas Department of Transportation and Tennessee Department of Transportation are looking into this problem.
With the Colonial Pipeline incident and this happening at the same time, I’m sensing that Americans may find their lives disrupted a bit in the coming weeks.
I checked a map of Memphis and it didn’t look as tho the detour to I-55 was a great distance; is it?
That’s unpossible given the continuing success of the Trump administration’s “infrastructure week”!
It’s normally not bad. I’ve taken I-55 driving into Mississippi. I can’t remember if it was I-55 or 240 that has a lot of traffic lights. It’s almost like being on a city street.
I’ve rarely driven in Memphis. I’m usually trying to get around it on trips to Nashville or into Mississippi. Traffic is always heavy.
I-55 will be really bad until the bridge reopens.
Yeah, this sort of thing is why I’ve long kept about 1-2 weeks of food and supplies tucked away at home and my vehicle fuel tanks half full - in case of disruption it’s less disrupting to me, personally.
Although I think the folks building mini-bunkers with 2 years of food and enough guns and ammo for a small nation are taking “prepping” to an unhealthy extreme.
I also recognize that not everyone is equally able to be ready for 1-2 weeks self-sufficiency and, to be honest, I’m a bit weak on some items myself. You do your best and then cope.
Also - keeping on good terms with the neighbors is a seriously under-appreciated resource. When the going gets tough communities do better than individuals. Bartering is a thing. And so on.
Short two minute video.
River view crossing underneath the bridge.
I like the view of the city from the river.
This was posted a month ago. It’s scary to realize the bridge crack must have already started.
I’ve been reading Reddit to get more information about the closure.
Interstate highways don’t have traffic lights.
A better article:
Note: Boat traffic in the area on the Mississippi was also shut down.
Mod note: Please, no political cracks in MPSIMS. No warning.
No barge traffic? That would cause problems, I would think.
Yep.
Looks like this decade is shaping up to be the Disrupted Decade.
Right:
Interstates are generally on two bridges. One for each directions so at least one should reopen with two way traffic.
This might be a coincidence but it happening when an infrastructure bill is being approved makes me suspicious. The publicity pretty much locks int he funds to replace it.
That’s going to depend on where the crack is and what they have to do to fix it. From what I can see, they might have to repair an entire side of a pier. That would screw up traffic for months if not years. I’m actually more concerned about the blockage of barge traffic.
I watched ARDOT’s press conference. The crack is in one of the 2 main beams. I lost count of the times they said very significant damage. The bridge gets inspected annually.
Pictures will be released later today. It sounds like shipping will be impacted for awhile. Repairs over a river are always more difficult.
They’ll announce a plan to fix the bridge when it’s ready.
Press conference
Picture:
I would call this a break not a crack.
Good lord! I was imagining some sort of picture where an engineer would have to draw a red circle around some small detail that most of us would not notice. This is not that.
Me, too - it’s a LOT easier to re-route cars and trucks than Mississippi barge traffic because, well, it’s hard to re-route a river.
I can’t recall how to calculate the stresses in those rivets. I can’t even remember the name of the course, perhaps “Mechanics of Materials”.
Better picture to get an idea of the size of the break.
https://scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/185202904_3812862235493355_434507571109977244_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=b3KKPrVq3ioAX8-eynV&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-2.xx&oh=bbef37a3a11d967f5d33ad82d7400587&oe=60C14C16
I’ll bet the inspector needed a new pair of pants after seeing that. Not going to be an easy fix.
There’s a support pier on the opposite side from the crack. Maybe they could pour a pier directly under the crack? Then box in that broken beam with new welded steel. Seems like that would work. But an engineer has to crunch the numbers and calculate load.
Pouring a pier into bedrock would be a big job and could take months.