ALERT Memphis bridge closed

Craftypatches

Veteran Member
Local news says the crack was discovered during routine maintenance and that the bridge will be closed indefinitely.
What a mess this will be!
It’s strange everything is inDefinately! The computer hack I imagine will be inDefinately too! There must be something in the works for all of this. More will probably come! What, I don’t know. Maybe I’m a conspiracy theorists! Would make a great book!
 

The Mountain

Here since the beginning
_______________
It’s strange everything is inDefinately! The computer hack I imagine will be inDefinately too! There must be something in the works for all of this. More will probably come! What, I don’t know. Maybe I’m a conspiracy theorists! Would make a great book!

The pipeline hack has already been announced to be resolved by the end of this week. Even the hacker group that developed the ransomware software involved said they don't go in for societal disruption and have apologized that their stuff caused something as important as a pipeline to be attacked.
 

Lilbitsnana

On TB every waking moment
MOST of the posts on the I-40 bridge seem to leave out that RIVER barge traffic is halted as well.

SOME mammy-jammer SOMEWHERE wants to see just how much we can take-=-=-=-=-or swallow.

Yeah. I hadn't known until last night that the barge traffic was stopped as well. (tru "duh" moment, because I used to have a relative that worked the barges)

Ignore the bad punctuation, I was tired and I'm not fixing it now either, but this is what I posted on a different thread when the barge/boat traffic halt was pointed out.

hmmm, I had missed the boat traffic being stopped as well.

Gee, I wonder how many things on the destroy the US list are still unchecked?

A really smart person would have staggered them out more to make it look a little more legit. But I guess to succeed, they had to hit the completely overwhelm button and the hyperdrive at the same time.
 

Faroe

Un-spun
Funny how this works. Pipeline shut down because of a hacker and now commerce, think trucks hauling fuel, is shut down across one of the largest rivers in the world is ground to a stand still. It's almost like someone doesn't want any/much fuel getting to the east.
I'm starting to think the false flags won't just be mass shootings from here on out.
Pipeline hacked/ suddenly bridge cracks are a huge concern ...Whatever.
Curious to see what they come up with tomorrow.
 

philkar

Veteran Member
I nominate my 4 yr old neighbor boy.

He is smart. Makes things out of whatever he finds on the property and he is fearless. When lightning struck near my house the other day and set off all of the alarms in my house, he was going to put a rainslicker on that looks like the ones firemen wear and come over with his 2 German shepherds to save me.

Smarter and more leadership than anyone in DC.
You gotta love little boys!
 

CaryC

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I'm starting to think the false flags won't just be mass shootings from here on out.
Pipeline hacked/ suddenly bridge cracks are a huge concern ...Whatever.
Curious to see what they come up with tomorrow.
It's already out just no one picking up on it. Drought. It's a slower disaster.

So the back up TP (corn) is going to be in short supply. Beat the rush, panic early, buy your corn cobs now.

That's only slightly sarcastic.

BTW hurricane season starts June 1. Expecting an overactive season, above normal.
 

Lilbitsnana

On TB every waking moment
You gotta love little boys!

I apologize in advance for going off topic, but I need some humor (and it is a true story).

That little boy loves me, says I am his favorite "other Mommy" and calls me "Mommy J-----", but I am only his second favorite neighbor (1st favorite gives him candy all the time).

He is sweet, but I found out he is mischievous like most little boys.

They have two German shepherds (only had them for a few months). The male is/was a "biter" and she had promised she would never let him out without being leashed, the female is sweet and comes to visit me all the time.

Well, 4 yr old comes out, tells me we have to talk and heads my way. Dog starts barking and heading my way even faster than little boy, but not in a friendly way. (and he wasn't leashed)

I said isn't that Maverick? I said he bites everyone and he is not supposed to be out without your Mom.

He said, "he only bites if you run, so don't run."

Later, he asked if I would start buying dog treats to give the dog and I said, no, that I have a cat and I keep cat treats.
He said, "that's kind of rude, don't you think? Maverick doesn't like cats."

Then my cat, Jaguar, comes strolling around the corner. Remember, the dog is a biter, but now supposedly he only bites if you run.

So, my cute little 4 yr old neighbor, says, "run, Jaguar run!" and my cat takes off and the dog takes off, then he says, "I hope he doesn't eat Jaguar since you wouldn't give him a treat."

Love that little boy.....
 
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catskinner

Veteran Member
According to ARDOT, 2 of the 900 ft. support spans are broken on the Hernando DeSoto bridge.
The breaks are near the state line, so AR and TN will work together and share the cost to repair.
This repair would take a year if only one state was involved. Now we have two.

Local news is reporting that it is taking one hour to drive the seven miles from West Memphis to Memphis because of the back up. The Memphis-Arkansas bridge is only 2 lanes in each direction. Crossing from Arkansas, there is only one lane that will put you back on the interstate.

Memphis-Arkansas bridge was built back in the 1920's and is structurally in better shape than the Hernando DeSoto bridge built in the 1970's. Go figure.
 

rob0126

Veteran Member
Ive pondered over the years about bridge out situations locally.

I could picture people swapping cars at the bridges (each side) after swimming across the creek/river, and vise versa going back.

But I cant imagine main artery bridges being knocked out.
 

bw

Fringe Ranger
Ive pondered over the years about bridge out situations locally.

I could picture people swapping cars at the bridges (each side) after swimming across the creek/river, and vise versa going back.

But I cant imagine main artery bridges being knocked out.

Prepping for bridge losses is one of the larger concerns in the Puget Sound area. We start with the assumption that they will all go down. Also, overpasses will be lying on the roadway.
 

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
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According to ARDOT, 2 of the 900 ft. support spans are broken on the Hernando DeSoto bridge.
The breaks are near the state line, so AR and TN will work together and share the cost to repair.
This repair would take a year if only one state was involved. Now we have two.

Yikes!
 

The Mountain

Here since the beginning
_______________
According to ARDOT, 2 of the 900 ft. support spans are broken on the Hernando DeSoto bridge.
The breaks are near the state line, so AR and TN will work together and share the cost to repair.
This repair would take a year if only one state was involved. Now we have two.

Local news is reporting that it is taking one hour to drive the seven miles from West Memphis to Memphis because of the back up. The Memphis-Arkansas bridge is only 2 lanes in each direction. Crossing from Arkansas, there is only one lane that will put you back on the interstate.

Memphis-Arkansas bridge was built back in the 1920's and is structurally in better shape than the Hernando DeSoto bridge built in the 1970's. Go figure.

Even though this is Arkansas and Tenn that we're talking about, this is unlikely to be a situation where they squabble and play petty politics. Even with the current oblivious administration in power, this is a major transport link and will likely receive extra attention. It'll get done soon.

On the upside, if there's *anyone* still awake in the FedDOT, the new bridge should be even wider, and have more future capacity taken into consideration.
 

rob0126

Veteran Member
Even though this is Arkansas and Tenn that we're talking about, this is unlikely to be a situation where they squabble and play petty politics. Even with the current oblivious administration in power, this is a major transport link and will likely receive extra attention. It'll get done soon.

On the upside, if there's *anyone* still awake in the FedDOT, the new bridge should be even wider, and have more future capacity taken into consideration.

Hopefully they wont sell it to a foreign entity and turn it into a toll bridge like they did in Louisville,KY. (That one hurts a lot of folks who live across the bridge and work in the other state)
Ive paid a nice chunk to that troll bridge.
 

bw

Fringe Ranger
On the upside, if there's *anyone* still awake in the FedDOT, the new bridge should be even wider, and have more future capacity taken into consideration.

Doesn't work that way. Make it just big enough for today's traffic, and then next year or so there will be new contracts to let, new profits to make.
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
Is this the bridge that lost a span and had some spook with a briefcase and laptop stuck on one side that we found to be in 2 places at one time or some such carp??

About 15 years ago??
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
I may be the only one who remembers the situation. Was in ref a bridge across the Miss, which had a span drop into the water. Some guy was there to retrieve a laptop from one of the cars at the western end of the dropped span. Guy was all (Allegedly) gussied up in an AF Full Bird uniform but was ALSO identified as a spook.
We had timed pix of him at the bridge AND time stamped info that he was a couple hundred (like 400) miles west of the bridge.

Just trying to remember if it was the I-40 bridge.
 

1911user

Veteran Member
I may be the only one who remembers the situation. Was in ref a bridge across the Miss, which had a span drop into the water. Some guy was there to retrieve a laptop from one of the cars at the western end of the dropped span. Guy was all (Allegedly) gussied up in an AF Full Bird uniform but was ALSO identified as a spook.
We had timed pix of him at the bridge AND time stamped info that he was a couple hundred (like 400) miles west of the bridge.

Just trying to remember if it was the I-40 bridge.
You might be thinking of this:


It was in Eastern OK on I-40 over the Arkansas River in 2002. A barge hit a bridge support.
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
If this pic is real that is a serious break.

Vertical displacement is extremely serious

Yep. Due to the ways the 2 construction materials fail, that's a butt-clencher right there.
You have horizontal displacement which isn't terribly bad right there, though it only needs a few more milimeters wider to become more fun than a barrell of politicians with firecrackers going off around their feet. (wider the crack in concrete, the FASTER the crack propagates. Get it wide enough and you won't see the propagation, you WILL hear the destruction, though.)

That vertical crack is in the STEEL and THAT just ain't right. Means that that whole beam is in the process of failing.

Note in the larger pic that on the other side of the junction box SOMEONE concrete-skinned over a potentially similar break.

That is going to be a WHILE since they have to unweight the beam AND ALL THE BEAMS IN THAT JUNCTION BOX to fix this.
OR they could just stand all the repair equipment on the approaches for a couple days... and let gravity and nature take their courses.
 

The Snack Artist

Membership Revoked
She's cracked alright, that's some serious metal fatigue there

View attachment 266251
I don't know. A little caulk, spackle, and paint and voila! New looking bridge. Go for it! There was a time when the trains ran on time, the bridges were safe, people worked, the .gov protected the nation. Joe and the ho show can't find their ass w/ 5 borrowed hands. They've managed (purposefully or not) to mess things up really bad in a quick fashion.
 

Doomer Doug

TB Fanatic
In my book Day of the Dogs research, I read where you could cut the USA in half, like Grant did with Vicksburg, if you disabled, or collapsed, 4 road and rail bridges over the Mississippi River.
This also qualifies as a classic black swan event: unexpected, could have happened 20 years ago, or today. The outsize impact, in combo with the pipeline hack and the keystone shut down gives you black swan with synergistic effect. Add nukes from the Ukraine and Jerusalem for levels, with covid impact.
Biden will be the death of us all.
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
Doug, it's SLIGHTLY more than 4 of each though that's close enough for a first strike. Only need a smaller team to catch the others the next week. Fairly trivial logistics exercise for minimum personnel, giving the proliferation of DIY explosives, PLUS the black market currently running.

Actually the 1993 Spring Floods DID cut us in half with the only way to get across the Miss, was in Minnesota, basically at the headwaters.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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You might be thinking of this:


It was in Eastern OK on I-40 over the Arkansas River in 2002. A barge hit a bridge support.

I still don't like crossing that one or the old bridge in Webber's Falls.

Not as bad as the old I-10 bridges tho.

Especially the one at Lake Charles.

OIP.9n4yrUTM6pONFOX7WyrfdgHaGc
 
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