"M" bridge over Mississippi closed

Heads up, Mid-South drivers! The I-40 bridge - also known as the “M” bridge - has been shut down indefinitely.

I-40 Bridge over Mississippi River remains closed after structural crack discovered


it be way broke...

Note the rust on the crack edges, this was a while in the works.

 

Duct tape will fix that right up .

 

A million here a billion there then throw another trillion at the thing.

 

Personally I might call that just a little bit more than a crack.

 

Stress Corrosion Cracking - NACE
stress corrosion cracking is the real deal. Everything from buildings to bridges to air planes and ships can have issues with it.

 

I would guess the mill is a super fund cleanup project.

 

Good, cause I HATED having find that bridge every time that I went through Memphis! What I really hated was getting lost in Memphis...coming and going! Heading east I would end up on some dark county road in Mississippi or Tennessee and have to find Hwy. 72 again, but going west I had to find that one damn bridge across the Mississippi River! Haven't been that way in a while, as I would rather swing south and cross the river at Vicksburg.

 

Haven't been on the Vicksburg bridge since1967. Is it still a two lane piece of twisted angle iron?

 

The Fix was Obumas Bank account.

 

local news has a lot about it. Apparently the inspectors who found it were on 9-1-1 saying "WE HAVE TO GET PEOPLE OFF THIS BRIDGE NOW!!!" wreg.com

 

They have also halted the Mississippi River traffic. The barges are not allowed under the bridge which will have a huge impact on the supply chain. Trucks can go around the closed bridge but the barges cannot. Not sure how long this will go on but people need to remember the Mississippi river is a vital transportation route.

Barge Traffic Backs Up Near Memphis Amid Mississippi River Closure

 

Wonder how long its going to take to resolve that issue . I don't see the reason for stopping traffic from going under it,, as long as that crack isn't getting any wider ,, while they're keeping traffic off of the bridge.

 

I didn't understand why they stopped also. Seems like over-kill but the DOT thinks differently.
That is more than a crack. The beam to broken. And even though officials say the bridge was inspected last year, that beam has shown signs as far back as 2019.

This was in a tweet.


https://twitter.com/ManascoD/status/1392613304305061896

 

Thanks for that pic Moto ,,, it gives us a better idea of the break. In the earlier pic , it didn't look like the beam was that big . It's one of the main beams. Puts it a little more in perspective. Thats going to cause a traffic nightmare for quite a while I s'pose .

 

If that pic is from 2019 and the inspection was signed off last year some inspector is going to be looking for a new career field.
That bridge is old enough they were not interested in material traceability very much back then. Odds are they will be able to trace it back ti a handful of possible mills most of which are closed. What are the record retention requirements for structural steel production? Its 50 years for aerospace. Be interesting to see the heat treating on that lot. There are a lot of top notch metallurgists in TN. They might get some of the guys from UT and ORNL involved. I’ve seen quite a bit of SCC in aerospace structures. Its not just engineers that worry about it. It keeps us metallurgists up at night as well.