Officials stress safety in reopening bridge

Highway officials today said they want the Interstate 40 bridge across the Mississippi River repaired as quickly as possible, but cautioned that the project will take time.

During a press conference this afternoon, Clay Bright, Tennessee Commissioner of Transportation, said the agencies have had three goals since the bridge was closed last Tuesday afternoon when a break was discovered in one of the beams.

Bright said those goals included reopening to the river to barge traffic under the bridge, which occurred Friday morning. The other goals are to repair the bridge and reopen it for vehicular traffic and to diligently inspect the structure to find out if there are other problems.

Bright said Nebraska-based Kiewit Corporation was selected Monday afternoon for the bridge repair work.

He said the agency will acquire 35-foot long steel plates to be placed on each side of the fractured beam from a company in Bowling Green, Ky. Transportation officials said Kiewit could start work as early as Wednesday.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee at the press conference where they agreed that safety is the top priority in reopening the bridge.

“Whenever we see a break in commerce, or in this case a defect on the bridge, then we realize how dependent we are on that flow of commerce,” said Hutchinson. “We know and understand the delay that is involved. We are acting with a sense of urgency, but also keeping in mind the safety of that bridge.

“This will take some time. We will work to get this done as soon as possible, but safety is the premium,” Hutchinson said. “We want to get it right and get it back in operation. This certainly illustrates the importance of our infrastructure in the United States.”

On Monday, Arkansas Department of Transportation Director Lorie Tudor said the inspector who failed to discover the crack was fired.

Tudor said the firing came after drone video showed the crack on the bridge spanning the

(Continued from Page 1) Mississippi River in May 2019. Tudor said the crack was not noted by the inspector in his reports that fall or the following year.

"This is unacceptable," Tudor said Monday. The department did not immediately name the employee and said the incident is also being referred to federal investigators.

Arkansas' DOT on Monday released an image and video from the drone, which showed the crack. The drone footage was taken by a consultant inspecting the bridge's cables.

Traffic on the six-lane bridge was shut down last Tuesday after inspectors found a "significant fracture" in one of two 900-foot horizontal steel beams that are critical for the bridge's integrity. River traffic under the span was closed Tuesday but reopened on Friday.

The closure has impacted a heavily used corridor and raised concerns about shipping and delivery costs. The Arkansas Trucking Association on Friday estimated the closure would cost the trucking industry at least $2.4 million a day.

Traffic was being rerouted to Interstate 55 and the 71-year-old Memphis and Arkansas Bridge, about 3 miles south.

Arkansas and Tennessee authorities have not given a timeline for when the bridge will reopen. The Tennessee Department of Transportation said Monday that the I-40 bridge repair will be conducted in two phases, and both steps must be completed before the bridge can be reopened for road traffic.

The first step is installing steel plates on each side of the fractured beam to provide stability for crews to permanently replace the damaged parts, TDOT said in a statement. The plates are being made and fabrication should be completed by Wednesday, TDOT said. The second phase involves removal and replacement of the damaged piece of the bridge.

Tennessee's DOT also said it is reviewing the condition of the I-55 bridge "out of an abundance of caution."

Tudor said all "fracture critical" bridges that had been inspected by the fired employee will be re-inspected. She said the fired employee, who had worked for the department for about 15 years, did not follow proper protocol in the bridge's inspection.

"The way we're supposed to inspect the bridge is you literally go inch by inch along that beam and physically inspect every inch of the beam," she said. "That did not happen."

Tudor said the department is making changes to its inspection program to add additional checks, including the use of a new drone to aid in inspecting bridges. Tudor said last week that the bridge's damage could have led to a "catastrophic" event had it not been discovered.

The bridge's closure comes as the White House is negotiating with a group of Senate Republicans on an infrastructure package. Democrats have called the I-40 bridge damage an example of the urgent need for additional funding to fix the nation's bridges and roads.

Republicans have called for a infrastructure plan with a smaller price tag than President Joe Biden's and with a narrower definition of public works.