They have no idea right now, and the same thing was said about the Sherman Minton bridge in Louisville. That repair took the better part of a year.
The I-40 bridge in Memphis (new bridge) shut down until further notice...
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They have no idea right now, and the same thing was said about the Sherman Minton bridge in Louisville. That repair took the better part of a year.
The restaurant was the Cow Pen. Best Chips and Dip for 100 miles. The Tamales were very good and so was the Tex-mex. It is there, but I don't know if it is still open. It changed owners around 2000-2001 that's about the time I was there.
I had a boss one time who was sitting on several thousand ISO's with a strike price of $0.07 and the company stock was at $70+/share. He was complaining about having to exercise the options and the tax bill coming. As I told him, if you'd like to send me all of your Gamestop earnings, I'll pay the taxes on it without complaint! 
No, it's the right one. It says in your linked article that work began in May 1967. Time flies. I just googled "how old is the I-40 bridge in Memphiis".
Take that back, this looks pretty raunchy - might have to fish plate it.*
Where did that picture come from?
Speaking of narrow lanes - the nominal lane width for an Interstate highway is 12 feet. Huntsville has an Interstate spur from I-65 to the city, I-565. It was opened around 1990 with 2 lanes in each direction until it got just past the airport, then increased to 3 in each direction, then a couple miles later to 4 and sometimes 5 in each direction.
The western end, or most of it, is going to be widened to 3 lanes in each direction, but the bridges (and there are several, maybe a couple hundred feet long) were built for only 2 lanes. So - ALDOT is going to widen to 3 standard 12-foot lanes, except when the bridges are crossed the lane width will drop to 11 feet. Can you imagine being in the center lane with an 18 wheeler on each side of you going over the bridges at 75 or 80 mph? It's going to be chaos. An 18-wheeler is 8.5 feet, so there will be 15 inches of clearance on each side of the trailer, assuming the truck stays in the center of his lane. That's too close for comfort. But it's cheaper to do it that way.
Absolutely. It must have been quite some time since the bridge was inspected. It's a wonder the thing hasn't collapsed already. That would be a nightmarish situation.
Supposedly inspected in 2019. Both bridges are supposed to be inspected every 2 years.
Just read that the Corp has shut the MS River down at the bridge indefinitely...
This is turning out to be a giant cluster concerning shipping. If the river is shut down in Memphis, that means no barge traffic north of Memphis, and that is a giant problem.
This is turning out to be a giant cluster concerning shipping. If the river is shut down in Memphis, that means no barge traffic north of Memphis, and that is a giant problem.
That picture with a wider view is very concerning. I'm thinking this may be a sign of a more serious structural issue in the super structure of the bridge. It will be interesting to see what they say in the next week or so.
Does this seem like they are being overly cautious or is it just me? Wouldn't the bridge already have collapsed if was going to? I am talking about the barge traffic, not the car and truck traffic. What do you Structural engineers have to say?
You have to be cautious until to you can assess the situation. Right now they are probably determining if this is a localized failure or an impeding system failure.
Or, a tow suddenly getting a little crosswise and bumping one of those pilings. It has happened more than once at Memphis. It requires a specific line of travel to go under the new I-40 bridge (the one in question). After passing under I-40 there is a slight right turn to get the tow headed correctly to go under the old I-55 bridge...it is not a straight shot through both and they are about a mile or maybe two apart.
Bridges are required to be inspected every two years, from your rinky dink box bridges to these massive river bridges. This crack was caught during a routine bridge inspection, I imagine the engineers from each states department of transportations had a heart attack seeing that break on the river bridge.
There are cracks and "spalls" on almost every bridge that is older than 5 years, its simply the result of the traffic and water that runs through the structures. A break like this is a result of a crack that has not been noticed for years or because of stress added from another failure in the bridge.
There are cracks and "spalls" on almost every bridge that is older than 5 years, its simply the result of the traffic and water that runs through the structures. A break like this is a result of a crack that has not been noticed for years or because of stress added from another failure in the bridge.
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You actually improved on my idea. I'm shocked. Any idea if Krylon will stick to Flex Tape so it looks more professional?
I wonder if all the Civils at State are firing up their concrete canoes to go inspect it? As an EE I'll say that it's gonna be tough to get current to flow through that part of the bridge now. If they need help with that, I'm available.
Reckon they will reroute those barges back up to Paducah and come through the TN River/TennTom and out to the gulf? I guess they’d hafta bring in more tugs so they can break the barges up to fit the TennTom locks if they go that route. The prices of those payloads have probably already doubled.
News reporting DOTs meeting today to give Coast Guard assessment of bridge. Hopefully they can open up barge traffic this weekend.
There was a similar break on a Delaware bridge a couple of years ago and it was closed for 2 months. Here’s the pic for reference.
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I'm not sure this would be an accurate comparison. From what I read that failure was due to a fabrication error and a different type of bridge design.
Bridges, pipelines, power grids....Biden is making sure to get that damn infrastructure bill passed.
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