As part of its daily update, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said it intends to have a schedule sometime next week for the reopening of the Hernando DeSoto bridge. 

The department has also chosen a method of repairing the bridge, from two choices available to it.

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One method would remove the entire fractured steel box and replace it. The other method, which was selected, would add “steel plating adjacent to the damaged area, bypassing the fractured components, removing a smaller section of the fractured piece and leaving the bulk of the box section in place.” 

TDOT and the Arkansas Department of Transportation agreed to use the second “plating” method; the departments’ update said that will allow the bridge to reopen to traffic two to three weeks sooner than removing the entire damaged steel box. 

Roughly 67,000 vehicles are traveling across the I-55 bridge each day. Inspectors are continuing to monitor drone footage and images of that bridge and, so far, have found “nothing of concern.” 

First phase of bridge repair complete