Barge traffic restarts under cracked span

River traffic has reopened on the Mississippi River near Memphis, three days after it was closed when a crack was discovered in the Interstate 40 bridge that connects Tennessee and Arkansas, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday.

Tug boats hauling more than 1,000 barges were in line Friday to cross under the Hernando De Soto Bridge, the Coast Guard said.

Economic development officials had been concerned that an extended closure of river traffic could hurt the region’s economy and have ripple effects on the nation’s supply chain.

The bridge itself will remain closed to vehicles indefinitely, with road traffic rerouted to Interstate 55 and the 71yearold Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, about 3 miles south.

River traffic under the sixlane bridge was shut down Tuesday after inspectors found a “significant fracture” in one of two 900footlong horizontal steel beams that are vital to the bridge’s integrity, said Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

The Arkansas Trucking Association on Friday estimated the closure would cost the trucking industry at least $2.4 million a day because of the longer routes to cross the river.

Arkansas transportation officials said the crack did not appear in the last inspection of the bridge, which occurred in September 2020.

The bridge opened in 1973 and carries an average of about 50,000 vehicles a day, with about a quarter being trucks, transportation officials said.

John Minchillo / Associated Press Rioters try to break through a police barrier Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. A House panel has reached an agreement on legislation to form a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack.