Additional repairs to the Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis probably means the bridge won’t open until early August, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said Friday.
The work in the third and final phase of the project to reopen the Hernando de Soto Bridge involves the installation of what is now a total of 17 steel plates, which requires drilling, bolting and torquing. Each plate requires up to 200 or more bolts in order to attach it to the bridge.
Installing the plates also requires removing lateral bracing, modifying gusset connection plates and reinstalling the lateral bracing, according to the Tennessee department.
“Once the last bolt is torqued on the plate, these items can be completed,” the department said in its Friday update posted on the agency website.
The third phase involves repairing weaknesses found after an in-depth inspection of the entire bridge. Those repairs will require about 500 welds.
The in-depth inspection was conducted after a crack in a bridge feature critical to its integrity was discovered by chance on May 11. The discovery forced transportation officials to abruptly close the crossing, which is part of a major freight corridor through the central United States.
No additional cracks were found in the in-depth inspection.
Thirteen of the 17 plates have been “at least ‘rough-set,” which means they require additional work before they are fully set, according to the update. “The last four plates are arriving today and will be set over the next few days.”