After a crack in the Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River in Memphis shut down one path over the nation’s largest river earlier this month, a natural question comes to mind: What’s the condition of bridges in the Chattanooga area?
According to the Tennessee Department of Transportation, most of Southeast Tennessee’s major bridges spanning large bodies of water or major traffic thoroughfares are in good shape, but there are a few bridges with issues, such as the State Route 60 bridge over the Tennessee River between Meigs and Rhea counties.
Tennessee is ranked 10th in the nation for number of bridges, with nearly 20,000. Tennessee inspects all state- and locally-maintained bridges, whereas other states only inspect the state-maintained bridges. In Tennessee, there are 8,400 state-maintained bridges. The remainder are locally maintained.
A handful of local bridges in Southeast Tennessee stand out on the state’s “poor” condition list because of where they are, but none of them are considered by TDOT bridge engineers to be unsafe, according to spokesperson Jennifer Flynn. Some repairs are underway, and others are coming soon.
“We are concerned about all bridges, which is why our bridge inspection and repair program is so robust,” Flynn said.