Space Daily September 12, 2026 • 07:00

A steel tension tie holding up a 1973 bridge that carries Interstate 40 over the Mississippi was found split most of the way through, and traffic in both directions was stopped within hours on May 11, 2021. Ultrasonic testing of the other welds turned up 12 more w - spacedaily.com

A steel tension tie holding up a 1973 bridge that carries Interstate 40 over the Mississippi was found split most of the way through, and traffic in both directions was stopped within hours on May 11, 2021. Ultrasonic testing of the other welds turned up 12 more w - spacedaily.com

A routine bridge inspection revealed a crack hiding in plain sight—and when engineers looked closer, they found a dozen more invisible failures waiting to catastrophe.

On May 11, 2021, an inspector checking the Hernando de Soto Bridge from above the deck spotted something no routine inspection expects to find. One of the two main steel tension ties in the eastbound… [+4690 chars]

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