Friday, May 14, 2021

Not A Job for Duct Tape

It's not really all that funny.

Earlier this week, in a routine bridge inspection, an engineer climbed onto the section of the Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River and spotted a massive fracture in the frame that resulted in the immediate shutdown of the bridge on Wednesday. Traffic is being rerouted to Interstate 55 Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, creating traffic jams in the Memphis area. On the Mississippi River, the situation is much worse. Hundreds of barrages are piling up on either side of the bridge as the US Coast Guard has closed the critical waterway. 

After a routine inspection, officials with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced that the Hernando de Soto Bridge would be closed due to a crack on the bottom side of the bridge truss. ...

So cars and trucks are inconvenienced?  What's the big deal?

...a much larger and possibly underreported story is the closure of the lower Mississippi River that is a critical waterway for the transportation of farm goods. 

Reuters reports as of Thursday, the logjam of barrages swelled to 771. Coast guard officials closed the waterway Wednesday, preventing any vessel from passing underneath the bridge. ...

The story at the link has a picture of the beam in question and yes, that sucker is DOA.  Duct tape would help, but that guy needs some serious ironwork.

1 comment:

Mar said...

I'm wondering how often they check these bridges if it had such a big crack.
Unless an accident caused it and then it should have been checked then.
But Duck tape could have helped. Also with with that glue that seals the boat and some Fix a Flat, bridge would have been good as new.
Just get the ghost of Billy Mays on it.