Rating:
2 votes

Hernando DeSoto Bridge

Shelby County, Tennessee, and Crittenden County, Arkansas
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Photos 

Overview at dark

Photo taken by Jeremy Clevenger

Map 

Street View 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Two-span steel through arch bridge over the Mississippi River on I-40 at Memphis
Location
Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, and Crittenden County, Arkansas
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1973
Design
Two 900' tied steel arch spans and five continuous steel box girder spans
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 899.7 ft.
Total length: 9,432.6 ft. (1.8 mi.)
Deck width: 85.6 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 18.6 ft.
Also called
The New Bridge (common name)
Approximate latitude, longitude
+35.15307, -90.06403   (decimal degrees)
35°09'11" N, 90°03'51" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/767451/3893966 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Northwest Memphis
Inventory numbers
TN 79I00400001 (Tennessee bridge number)
BH 32700 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 07/2011)
Deck condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 58.0 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2011)
48,790

Categories 

Arch (9,418)
Arkansas (1,219)
Built 1973 (55)
Built during 1970s (494)
Crittenden County, Arkansas (8)
Flared (407)
Functionally obsolete (7,035)
Have street view (9,883)
I-40 (8)
Memphis, Tennessee (14)
Mississippi River (155)
 Navigable waterway (1,448)
Open (28,303)
Over a mile long (192)
Owned by state (9,806)
Shelby County, Tennessee (22)
Span length 500-1000 feet (313)
State line crossing (513)
Steel through arch (175)
Tennessee (770)
Tied Arch (41)
Total length over 2500 feet (587)

Update Log 

  • March 4, 2011: New Street View added by J.P.
  • April 1, 2009: New photos from Channin Rosenthal
  • June 3, 2008: New photos from David B. Haun
  • May 22, 2006: Posted additional photo from Jonathan Maxwell

Sources 

  • Jeremy Clevenger - j_s_clevenger [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Jonathan Maxwell - themaxwellshouse [at] roadrunner [dot] com
  • Wikipedia
  • David B. Haun
  • Channin Rosenthal
  • J.P. - wildcatjon2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
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Comments 

Mississippi River I-40 Bridge
Posted April 1, 2009, by Channin Rosenthal

It does have 4 lanes even though there is no emergency lane. The bridges in Cairo, Illinois are WAY scarier!! I love this bridge, mostly because I live in Memphis and I remember when they put the lights on the bridge. Sentimental reasons I guess.

Mississippi River I-40 Bridge
Posted September 4, 2007, by tom

This bridge is almost as bad as the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati but not that old. A Twin Structure ought to be built parallel to this one.

Mississippi River I-40 Bridge
Posted August 22, 2007, by Frank Sellke (franksellke [at] brueckenweb [dot] de)

a photo

Uploaded file: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, 26714 bytes

Mississippi River I-40 Bridge
Posted August 3, 2007, by James (adorno423 [at] aol [dot] com)

67.30 Sufficirncy rating

Mississippi River I-40 Bridge
Posted August 3, 2007, by Beverly Hanna (bhanna [at] appliedfiber [dot] com)

What is the rating of this bridge as of August, 2007. I have always been afraid on this one and the collapse in Minnesota has not helped.

Mississippi River I-40 Bridge
Posted March 22, 2007, by jeff (gainesjt [at] gmail [dot] com)

There are no emergency pull-off lanes on this bridge. If a car stalls or stops for any reason, it stalls or stops in a traffic lane. There have been numerous crashes as a result of this deficiency. Many have resulted in fatalities. One crash, involving a DUI driver, sent a small child over the side of the bridge. He fell ~80' to his death.

Mississippi River I-40 Bridge-Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Posted March 21, 2007, by Doug Force (dougforce [at] gmail [dot] com)

What does this mean?

Appraisal: Functionally obsolete

??

Thx