The I-40 bridge in Memphis (new bridge) shut down until further notice...
- Thread starter DesotoCountyDawg
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We certainly could use more infrastructure spending, and if you compare it to the stuff we waste money on, we could probably spend three times as much on infrastructure just by cutting gout the ridiculous spending and have gold plated infrastructure without losing any real value compared to what we're doing now, but it's not like you can take those reports at face value. If you're a civil engineer and will make a **** ton more money if the federal government spends a lot more money on infrastructure, of course you're going to say we need more infrastructure.
And even then, if we tried to do a legitimate infrastructure bill, a huge portion of it would be siphoned off by consultants, particularly environmental consultants, and litigation because we just don't have a legal and regulatory environment that lets you do major infrastructure at a reasonable cost. We should be doing major airport, port, and rail expansions, but it's damn near impossible to get anything significant done when you have to spend a decade on studies before you can even contemplate turning dirt.
The New Madrid Fault will definitely clear its throat some day. That's great terminology, by the way.
The problem is that it's been predicted for so long that everyone in and around Memphis has become calloused to it. I worry about the severity of the damage if we ever see "the big one."
The last "big one" on that fault line caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for several hours. There's definitely precedent.
The problem is that it's been predicted for so long that everyone in and around Memphis has become calloused to it. I worry about the severity of the damage if we ever see "the big one."
The last "big one" on that fault line caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for several hours. There's definitely precedent.
Meh. I'm got to cross the river at Memphis in a little over a couple weeks. If traffic is terrible, my alternate routes add anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and half more travel time for me.
You're probably looking at the wrong bridge. This is the one in question:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_Bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_Bridge
holy **** what a flashback. A group of my friends and I drove up when we were in about 9th grade (in the good old days of freedom when the driving age was 15 and alcohol could be bought at 18 - or at 15 at a certain Exxon in town), went to Libertyland, rode the Zippin Pippin a few times then went to see a concert at the great Midsouth Coliseum. It was either Rick Springfield or KISS.
I forgot all about that. Classmates freaking out weeks leading up to it. The day predicted was a weird day.
I was living in KY when they shut down one of the 2 major bridges across the Ohio in Louisville. It was almost exactly the same situation mid morning bridge inspection and completely shut the bridge down by 3 pm. A month or two before the closure my wife's company moved her department across the river in Indiana, it was a complete sh*t show for over a year. I'm a little concerned because this bridge was retro fitted for seismic forces in the 2000's. This means the issue is probably from a recent events and other parts of the bridge are probably compromised. Without knowing a lot about the issue I would assume this could be a lengthy closure. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this is not the case because the 55 bridge is almost as bad as the old Huey P. Long in New Orleans.
Rick Springfield at the Mid South Coliseum is on the list of "Concerts I went to but hesitate to admit for fear of having to turn in my man card."
Obviously Rocket isn't familiar with Memphis vernacular. Ha.
Another nugget, North Memphis, South Memphis and East Memphis are not the most northern, southern and eastern parts of the city. Those areas of town were probably named such when the "old bridge" was new.
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Southland is still operating at limited capacity anyway so they are not exactly packing the place quite yet
The worst bridge I’ve ever crossed is the bridge that goes across the White River at Clarendon Arkansas. Super narrow with tall concrete sides for about 3 miles and it curved several times. It was awful but thankfully they have built a new one through there.
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Huey P. Long is in bad shape. Years ago I attended Jefferson Parish Fire Academy on the west bank partially under the Huey P., in fact the parking lot was under the bridge and was a good place to park in the hot months due to the fact it was in the shade. The instructors at JPFA warned us to not park under the bridge as parts would fall off from time to time and cause significant damage to vehicles below.
The old river bridge at Vicksburg was the worst of all. Especially if a train was crossing, the whole damn thing would shake.
Great memories! Got action from several young ladies at Liberty Land on the log ride. It and Adventure River were both a lot of fun. It’s a shame something like those places no longer exists around Memphis, but speaking of the Pippin’ that thing shook so much a 6.0 could hit while you were riding it and you’d never know.
How long ago was that? They did a complete overall and widening on the HPL back in the mid thru late 2000's. I'm not sure there was any work done to RR approaches. There is probably some truth to falling items because most trains dump their entire sand box trying to get traction on the approaches.
Concerts at the Mid South were the greatest. Everyone sitting in the parking lot before the show partying before we went inside. I saw tons of great shows from Van Halen in 80 & 81 to ZZ Top. I even went to a super concert in the Liberty Bowl where Joan Jett blew the rest of the bands off the stage. Memphis used to be a great concert place with a great Waffle House heading south we could pull in to eat greasy food and sober up for the trip back home in Mississippi.
I know people that still call the Mall at Barnes Crossing in Tupelo as the “new mall.” If memory serves it opened in 88-89.
I saw the Rolling Stones in the Liberty Bowl. Great show. It was 250 degrees that day. They were shooting the crowd with firehoses to try and cool them down.
Lots of boobies were out that day.
Holy Crap. That's right in the middle of the span, too.....the absolute worst place for it.
Not exactly. There is a bridge pier to the left of the clouded area. Looking at the shape of the super structure this area probably has a high shear concentration.
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Well I'm no engineer so I don't really know anything about it....but it seems like a bad spot to me. And it wouldn't make sense that it would break there if it wasn't. What's your thought there?
By raising taxes on the wealthy and business, which will in turn pass on those increases to their customers.
Working on my taxes now, not fun.
Just by looking at the pictures the near vertical nature and location of the failure I would guess this is a shear failure. I assume in this design these chords do not to carry the full loading from the deck and deck is primarily supported by the super structure. This is the reason why the bridge deck has not fallen into the river. I imagine the failure is probably because of a change in the load path. Due to the location I would suspect the adjacent suspension cable or a settlement of the bridge pier.
If there are other engineers more versed in bridge design please correct me if I am wrong. I just do a lot of steel design and suspect this will not be quick fix.
If Memphis gets hit by a hurricane then a bridge is the last thing we need to worry about
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