First repairs completed on closed Memphis bridge. How long will it take to reopen?

Bailey Aldridge
·2 min read

Crews have completed the first repairs on the closed Memphis bridge — but it could be months before it reopens.

The Interstate 40 Hernando de Soto bridge, which runs over the Mississippi River and connects Tennessee and Arkansas, was closed to interstate and waterway traffic May 11 after a fracture in a steel beam was discovered during a routine inspection. It has reopened to river traffic but remains closed to drivers while crews make repairs.

The Hernando DeSoto Bridge over the Mississippi River is indefinitely closed after a “significant fracture” was discovered in a steel beam during a routine inspection.
The Hernando DeSoto Bridge over the Mississippi River is indefinitely closed after a “significant fracture” was discovered in a steel beam during a routine inspection.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation said Tuesday that crews completed the first phase of repairs and will begin on the second phase, which officials have said could take several months. The bridge won’t reopen to traffic until both phases are complete.

During the first phase of repairs, crews installed two 30-foot steel plates on both sides of the fracture to stabilize the bridge and allow crews to work on it. The Arkansas DOT said the phase was “completed during 24-hour shifts.”

Crews have completed phase one of repairs on the I-40 Memphis bridge. It involved installing steel plates on both sides of the fracture to stabilize the bridge.
Crews have completed phase one of repairs on the I-40 Memphis bridge. It involved installing steel plates on both sides of the fracture to stabilize the bridge.

Now, crews can begin the second phase — starting with “cleaning up the worksite and extending the platform while the design plans for repairs are finalized,” the transportation department says.

Phase two will involve removing and replacing the steel beam and could use “high-strength steel rods” to restore strength to the beam and then replace the section with the fracture.

Tennessee Commissioner of Transportation Clay Bright said during a news conference last week that “it could be several months easily” before the phase is completed and the bridge can reopen.

“As we move forward — day by day, week by week — as we get the information, we want to share that with you,” Bright said. “But for me to speculate, several months is about all I can tell you right now.”

The bridge’s closure has sparked concerns from some experts about shipping and supply delays across the country as the area is one of the heaviest freight corridors in the country.

“If you compare it to a body, this looks like the arteries and this is the heart of the country,” Adel Abdelnaby, a civil engineering professor at the University of Memphis, told Local Memphis this month. “So if you cut the heart of the country, it’s like you are giving the country a heart attack by shutting down the I-40 bridge because that is what connects the east and the west to the rest of the U.S.”

Bright said last week the closure will affect commerce, but the department is communicating with other transportation authorities to “give them advance warning” so truckers can make arrangements.

“We’re working at all different levels ... just to make sure that traffic is flowing as best it can,” he said.