Inspector Who Twice Missed Crack in Bridge Is Fired, Arkansas Officials Say
An inspector with the Arkansas Department of Transportation who twice failed to identify a crack in a bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee that prompted the bridge’s closure last week has been fired, the department announced on Monday.
Though officials did not name the inspector, Rex Vines, deputy director and chief engineer of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said at a news conference on Monday that “the same person was the team leader in both inspections” in 2019 and 2020.
“He didn’t see it,” Lorie Tudor, the department’s director, said at the news conference. “But the reason he didn’t see it is because he wasn’t following proper protocol.” The inspector was required to “literally go inch by inch along that beam and physically inspect every inch of the beam,” she said, adding, “That did not happen.”
The bridge deck and substructure are inspected every year by the Arkansas Department of Transportation, Dave Parker, a spokesman for the department, said. Additionally, the department hires a private contractor every two years to inspect the upper portion of the bridge, including its cables and higher extensions, Mr. Parker said.
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Drone footage in 2019 showed evidence of the crack on the bridge, which goes over the Mississippi River, meaning it had twice gone unreported by the staff inspector, the agency said.
The bridge, on Interstate 40, opened in 1973 and has two 900-foot spans. It is overseen by state transportation officials in both Tennessee and Arkansas; Arkansas is responsible for inspections, and Tennessee handles maintenance, officials said. The Arkansas Department of Transportation is responsible for inspecting 13,610 bridges, according to Mr. Vines.
After the bridge was closed last week, Arkansas transportation officials reviewed the bridge’s prior inspections. The drone footage of the bridge was recorded in May 2019 by a contractor working for Michael Baker International. The Arkansas Department of Transportation employee inspected the bridge that September, the department said.
When asked why the crack was not discovered sooner if it was visible on the drone video, Ms. Tudor said the video was about five hours long “and there’s like less than a second” of it that shows the crack.
President Biden has urged Congress to authorize money for an ambitious and expensive proposal to overhaul and upgrade as well as roads, airports, public transportation, railways and ports across America.
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