Minor repairs to be finished by Oct. 15

CELINA-Barriers and barrels marking a new traffic pattern on the Highway 52 Cumberland River Bridge appeared here last month prompting questions, and officials with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) have offered answers to an inquiry from the HORIZON.

“During the routine inspection of the Cumberland River Bridge on SR 52, a crack was discovered in one of the outer steel beams,” TDOT Community Relations Director Beth Emmons said.  “Out of an abundance of caution, traffic was shifted away from this beam.

“The bridge is safe to travel across, and again, the lane shift was due to being overly cautious.”

Emmons explained TDOT does routine inspections on all bridges in the state every two years and offered a timetable on the upcoming repair.

“We have added the bridge repair project to the June 21 letting with an estimated completion date of October 15, 2024,” Emmons said.  “The repairs are minor, and the bridge should be fully reopened by October 15.”

The most recent Tennessee Highway Bridge Report available online at tn.gov/tdot shows the bridge in question was built in 1988 with “steel continuous” main-span material and a main-span type described as “stringer/multi-beam or girder.”

The report with a date of 2017 also showed the bridge had a 71.9 sufficiency rating at the time.

National Bridge Inventory (NBI) sufficiency ratings compiled by the Federal Highway Administration range from 100 (entirely sufficient) to 0 (entirely insufficient or deficient).

The NBI sufficiency rating is calculated based on 55% for structural evaluation, 30% for obsolescence of design, and 15% for importance to the public.  The ratings are used for federal funding purposes.

According to the TDOT website, the 36-year-old structure crossing the Cumberland River is one of almost 20,000 highway bridges in the state, which have an average age of 44 years old.

The median age of the state’s bridges is the same as the national average, based upon a 2018 analysis of NBI data.

Under Federal law, TDOT is required to inspect all bridges that are over 20 feet long on public roads every 24 months.

These inspections allow the state to gather information needed to prioritize repairs, determine the load capacity and weight limit postings if needed, and protect the safety of the public.

TDOT performs inspections at 19,915 unique bridge sites every two years, plus an additional 110 re-inspections for specific issues identified during routine inspections.

Bridge inspections are conducted by inspection teams throughout the state.

The teams inspect 8,000-plus state-maintained bridges and 11,000-plus locally-maintained city and county bridges.

The only bridges not inspected are those maintained by the federal government, such as national park bridges or those identified as private bridges.