“The employee responsible for inspecting the cracked Memphis bridge has been fired.”
by Joe Sutton and Hollie Silverman, CNN
Updated 8:30 AM ET, Tue May 18, 2021
Last week, the primary bridge over the Mississippi River between Arkansas and Tennessee was shut down due to a crack all the way through a structural beam. Repairs will take months, and the impact on national shipping will be felt for much longer. Much of the 50,000 daily vehicle average over the bridge is I-40 East-West long haul shipping truck traffic. The southern riverbarge traffic was also affected, although the Coast Guard opened the lanes on Friday.
Inspections are managed by drones, as getting close enough to see future problems is a dangerous endeavor. It was one of these drone videos that got the bridge shut down last Tuesday. But these happen annually and until this year, had been reviewed by the same staff person, who’s now been fired. Thank god! A culprit!
The frightening thing about this of course is that nationally, all of our bridges are in some degree of trouble, and many teeter on possible catastrophic failure. Remember when the bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul fell INTO THE RIVER? That was almost 15 years ago, in 2007. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were so much worse in effects because of infrastructure failure.
Where and how we spend our money says who we are, especially in the collective, as a government. And what we have left undone is no longer acceptable. We cannot fire every negligent inspector in a system that has already failed in its basic responsibilities. Do, of course, but know that this will fix nothing. We have much to do.
Water in Memphis Part III coming next week!