Days after the I-40 bridge is shut down to traffic because of a fracture, drone footage is discovered that shows damage to the bridge from two years ago.
The drone video was taken in May 2019 by an ARDOT inspector who was inspecting the cables of the bridge shows damage in the same area as the break that happened this week.
“Let’s get the bridge repaired, quickly, safely, so that people can get back to their normal lives and everything but parallel to that is why this wasn’t discovered and reported in 2019 if that’s the case,” Dave Parker said.
ARDOT spokesman, Dave Parker says now they are reviewing an inspection report from September of 2019.
“To look through those inspection reports again to see if that evidence of damage was reported in May of 2019. Was it reported? Who was it reported to? If so, was any action taken? If action was taken, what were those measures,” he said.
ARDOT says they expect that investigation to last through the weekend but say this in no way will slow down the process of getting the bridge repaired.
ARDOT crews are making sure the bridge is safe and strong before they are able to start repairs and put equipment and people on the bridge. Tennessee commissioner of transportation, Clay Bright says they will be the ones to hire a contractor to make the repairs once the inspection is complete.
“We’re also looking at as far as what fixes can we do on the fractured area to give us a larger safety factor on that and also looking at what we can do as a long-term fix to get vehicles back on the I-40 bridge,” he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced this morning that barges and boats can now go under the bridge on the Mississippi River bridge. There is no timeline for when traffic will be able to use the bridge.