Lane Closures on I-40 Bridge Begin Tuesday

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Traffic will get a little more hectic as TDOT plans to close lanes on the Interstate 40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge Tuesday morning.

The project is expected to take two months beginning at 9:00 am on Tuesday morning.

Both the eastbound and westbound side of the bridge will serve one lane in order to safely install a new seismic expansion joint near the Riverside Drive exit. The project was broken into three phases. Phase 1 has already been completed. The up-coming lane closures will be part of Phase 2.

Since the New Madrid Fault line is located only 60 miles south of the bridge, TDOT is reinforcing this nearly forty-year-old structure to be earthquake resistant.

"This is the next step in the major process of making the bridge capable of handling a 7.7 magnitude earthquake," said Fred Stephenson with TRC, Inc. "This is critical because the I-40 Bridge is one of just two crossings over the Mississippi near Memphis and the I-55 Bridge cannot be seismically retrofitted."

Phase 3 will begin in mid-October and last through the week of November 15. The two right lanes of I-40 will be closed as will the I-40 westbound entrance ramp from Front Street and Riverside Drive. All wide loads and over height loads will be diverted to I-155 in Dyersburg.

Interstate 40 has one of the highest truck traffic percentages in the United States, and is a major artery through the center of America.

In order to ease traffic congestion along Interstate 55 during phases two and three of the seismic work TDOT will close the ramp that carries westbound Crump Boulevard traffic onto southbound Interstate 55. Motorists will be detoured onto Florida Street to South Parkway back to Interstate 55 South.

Also closed will be the ramp that carries southbound Interstate 55 traffic onto northbound Riverside Drive. Motorists will be detoured onto Florida Street to Georgia Avenue to Riverside Drive. Around 45,000 - 50,000 vehicles use the I-40 bridge each day, while another 48,000 to 50,000 utilize the I-55 bridge daily.

For more information on this project visit the project web page at www.tn.gov/tdot/i40hd/default.htm .