Rating:
4 votes

I-40 Arkansas River Bridge

Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, and Muskogee County, Oklahoma

Photos 

I-40 bridge

Heading westbound. Bridge is not particularly interesting, but is historic because of the collapse.

Photo taken by J Lance in December 2009

Enlarge

BH Photo #156231

Map 

Video 

I-40 Arkansas River Bridge

This is the bridge near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma that partially collapsed in 2002 when a barge hit one of the piers. 14 were killed.

Video posted by J Lance

Play video on YouTube

Facts 

Overview
Deck plate girder bridge over Arkansas River on I-40 in Webbers Falls
Location
Webbers Falls, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, and Muskogee County, Oklahoma
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1967; rehabilitated 1983. Collapsed on May 26, 2002 after being hit by a barge, killing 14. Reopened to traffic July 29, 2002.
Design
Deck plate girder
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 330.1 ft.
Total length: 1,988.9 ft.
Deck width: 64.0 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+35.48694, -95.09692   (decimal degrees)
35°29'13" N, 95°05'49" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/309779/3929066 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Stigler NE
Average daily traffic (as of 2016)
15,900
Inventory numbers
OKNBI 170510000000000 (Oklahoma bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 39281 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of August 2017)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 83 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

Arkansas River (129)
Built 1967 (169)
Built during 1960s (2,193)
Collapsed (501)
Continuous (2,692)
Deck girder (6,595)
Deck plate girder (67)
Disaster (23)
Girder (11,636)
Interstate 40 (17)
 Muskogee County, Oklahoma (71)
Oklahoma (2,048)
Open (41,421)
Owned by state (16,770)
Plate girder (9,149)
Rebuilt (3)
Sequoyah County, Oklahoma (44)
Span length 250-500 feet (1,306)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (2,049)
Webbers Falls, Oklahoma (2)

Update Log 

  • August 5, 2022: Updated by Brandon Cooper: Added category "Disaster"
  • July 27, 2020: New photo from Nick Boppel
  • February 24, 2010: Updated by J Lance: Added correct coordinates and photo
  • February 6, 2009: Added by J Lance

Sources 

  • J Lance - bugo [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • Nick Boppel - nickboppel01 [at] gmail [dot] com
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Comments 

I-40 Arkansas River Bridge
Posted August 5, 2022, by Brandon Cooper

I agree the collapse is noteworthy and was covered on the Science Channel for their "Engineering Catastrophes" show

I-40 Arkansas River Bridge
Posted August 5, 2022, by Paul Plassman

Personally, I'd be okay with keeping this one. It's large, and in my opinion attains some significance because of the collapse. Otherwise, I don't think it would be notable enough to be on here.

I-40 Arkansas River Bridge
Posted August 5, 2022, by Brandon Cooper

I don't think this bridge is historic outside of the barge incident. But that is to the administrators behind the website to determine the bridge's notability.