Makes the bottom of my stomach fall out. Holy Crap! And going 18-24months in between inspections is no big deal if the bridge is pretty new and there have been no prior defects found...or is it?
It also shows how vulnerable we would be to terrorist attack. A few bridges taken down and the nation would be physically cut in half. Maybe we have "Tofu Construction" similar to China.
How would you go about fixing something like that???? You can't just stick it back together with Gorilla Glue.
I hope they replace that section of beam, but I think it will be more complicated than just fixing that beam. With that being one of the main loadbearing beams, when it separated that put a load and extra stress on the other beams and braces.
Going through some video of the I 40 bridge, that was taken in May of 2019, they discovered what appears to be a crack in the same area of the bridge as the current break. If so, people crossing that bridge have been in danger for two years.
apparently the crack was not as new as was thought. https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/...1dhvgI--gFv6mXZlcpqmKNA_n4Pq4NFrPdV_WzUnEhytY