After I-40 bridge closure, Arkansas highway department to change inspection program leadership, procedures

Two leaders retire as state analysis calls for agency revamp

Vehicles use the eastbound side of the Interstate 40 bridge into Memphis on Aug. 1 after the span began to reopen to traffic after a three-month shutdown.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)
Vehicles use the eastbound side of the Interstate 40 bridge into Memphis on Aug. 1 after the span began to reopen to traffic after a three-month shutdown. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)

An Arkansas Department of Transportation investigation into how the structural fracture that led to the months-long closing of the Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River was overlooked has led to a recommendation to overhaul the agency's heavy-bridge maintenance section and the retirements of its top leaders.

Steven Hill, the heavy-bridge engineer and a 26-year agency veteran, as well has his assistant, Stewart Linz, a 36-year veteran, retired Wednesday, said Lorie Tudor, the department director. Their section is responsible for inspecting and maintaining 60 of the largest and most unique bridges in Arkansas, including the I-40 bridge connecting West Memphis and Memphis.

The results of the agency's investigation, a Federal Highway Administration review and a forensic analysis of the fracture all led department leaders to conclude that among the "changes/enhancements to strengthen and improve" the bridge inspection program was placing the heavy-bridge maintenance section "under new management," according to an After Action Report that the department prepared.

The retirements came on the eve of the 6-month anniversary of the May 11 closure as the agency prepared to release the results of the three reviews. The documents were scheduled to be distributed today to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the state's congressional delegation, Arkansas lawmakers and the state Highway Commission. It also is scheduled to be posted on the department's website, ardot.gov, today.

Other recommendations, according to the agency's investigation, include:

• Reorganize the heavy-bridge maintenance program.

[DOCUMENT: Read the final report on the Interstate 40 bridge fracture » arkansasonline.com/1111report40/]

• Create separate bridge inspection oversight committees composed primarily of professional engineers for policy and technical issues to which the bridge inspection manager will report semiannually.

• Add personnel to strengthen the program.

• Include on-site supervision by a professional engineer for each complex/heavy-bridge inspection. Such a role for professional engineers isn't required, but state officials say it is part of best practices.

• Heavy bridges, such as the I-40 span, will no longer be inspected by the same inspector consecutively.

• Solicit consultants to identify any new technologies available to strengthen the Arkansas Department of Transportation inspection program.

• Periodically perform ultrasonic testing of the I-40 bridge welds as recommended by federal and state transportation officials in Arkansas and Tennessee.

The department also pledged to implement the 18 recommendations developed as a result of the Federal Highway Administration review, including implementing more robust quality control and quality assurance procedures. The review found no compliance issues within the program.

The two retirements follow the dismissal in May of Monty Frazier, the bridge inspector who missed the crack during inspections in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020. The 2018 inspection was performed by an inspector who had never inspected the affected part of the bridge. He since has been counseled and will receive more training.

The review found that the culture fostered by heavy-bridge maintenance program management allowed shortcomings and shortcuts to be overlooked and suggested Frazier's deficiencies were common knowledge within the program.

"Management's failure to adequately act on reports by employees concerned with the terminated inspector's job performance perpetuated a culture where team members did not feel they had the authority or support to question a lead inspector's procedures or thoroughness," according to the report.

The program also failed to enforce documented procedures for rotating inspection teams.

"The assigned "lead" inspector was rotated and recorded in the system, but the same inspector was allowed to inspect the same arch spans each time in 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020," the report found.

[DOCUMENT: Read the recommendations in the "After Action Report" » arkansasonline.com/1111action40/]

The program also lacked adequate internal controls, including failing to document procedures for rotating inspection teams, lacking well-established quality assurance and control procedures for heavy-bridge maintenance inspections, not following documented internal procedures to allow employee feedback for management and lack of adequate detail in inspection reports.

"Inspection reports on the bridge lacked adequate detail to identify who was responsible for what portion of an inspection and/or what date a specific element was inspected," the report said.

The weaknesses uncovered in the heavy-bridge maintenance inspection program came after efforts to bolster the inspections for big bridges such as the I-40 bridge.

Until 2017, one team consisting of a inspector and assistant inspector was responsible for major bridge inspections statewide. That year, a second team was added. Two years ago, a third was added to help ensure that inspectors could be rotated as recommended.

The department is responsible for inspecting a total of 12,782 bridges, including 7,365 agency-owned spans. Most bridges are inspected every two years and usually by bridge inspection teams assigned to each of the department's 10 districts.

Bridges designed without redundancies like the I-40 bridge are inspected annually. There are a total of 765 such bridges in Arkansas.

The partial fracture in the I-40 bridge was discovered by chance by an engineer with Michael Baker International under contract to inspect another portion of the bridge. Had the girder fully fractured, the result could have been catastrophic because the bridge design lacks the redundancies built into most modern bridge designs and the rest of the bridge would have been unable to support itself.

The engineer who discovered the crack immediately moved to have the 48-year-old bridge closed to traffic. The bridge, also called the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, is part of a major freight corridor that carries 40,000 vehicles daily, 30% of them big trucks. It took weeks to unsnarl the delays caused by the bridge closing and cost the trucking industry millions of dollars in delays and additional fuel use.

Mississippi River barge traffic also was briefly halted to allow time for crews to inspect the bridge and stabilize it.

In all, $10 million was spent to repair and inspect the bridge, according to the department's after-action report.

The repairs were performed by crews from Kiewit Corp. of Omaha, Neb., in three separate phases.

Kiewit was hired by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, which along with the Arkansas Department of Transportation shares responsibilities for keeping the bridge safe. The Tennessee agency typically maintains the bridge and Arkansas is responsible for inspecting the bridge. Costs are evenly divided between the two agencies.

Kiewit was hired on May 17. By May 25, the contractor had stabilized the bridge to allow crews and equipment on the span to safely complete the full-scale repairs and complete more thorough inspections.

The full-scale repairs were completed July 6. Work began July 9 on the third phase, which involved installation of 17 fabricated steel plates in areas where welds showed evidence of potential weakness. The plates, which weigh as much as 5,000 pounds each, were fabricated by W&W/AFCO Steel at its operations in Little Rock and Van Buren.

The areas in question were invisible to the naked eye and were discovered only by ultrasonic testing of more than 500 welds, according to Arkansas agency officials. The testing found no new cracks.

Upon completion of the repairs and inspections, the eastbound lanes of the bridge reopened to traffic on July 31. Travel resumed in the westbound lanes on Aug. 2.

At least one other investigation remains ongoing by the U.S. Department of Transportation's office of inspector general, which has the power to file criminal charges if they are deemed necessary.

Tudor expressed confidence that her agency has learned from its mistakes.

"ArDOT is grateful that the bridge inspection program investigation is complete," she said in a prepared statement. "We will now move forward with confidence to make the changes necessary to improve our program so that the past will not be repeated.

"Our highest calling as public servants is the safety of the Arkansas road users. We appreciate Arkansans' support and encouragement as we have navigated this difficult journey, which began exactly six months ago on May 11."

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