LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – An inspector who failed to discover a crack in the Interstate 40 bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee that prompted the span’s closure has been fired, Arkansas transportation officials said Monday.
Arkansas Department of Transportation Director Lorie Tudor said the inspector was fired after drone video showed the crack o n the bridge spanning the Mississippi River in May 2019. Tudor said the crack was not noted by the inspector in his reports that fall or the following year.
“This is unacceptable,” Tudor said at a news conference. The department did not immediately name the employee and said the incident is also being referred to federal investigators.
Arkansas’ DOT on Monday released an image and video from the drone, which showed the crack. The drone footage was taken by a consultant inspecting the bridge’s cables.
Traffic on the six-lane bridge was shut down last Tuesday after inspectors found a “significant fracture” in one of two 900-foot (274-meter) horizontal steel beams that are critical for the bridge’s integrity. River traffic under the span was closed Tuesday but reopened on Friday.