Eight bridges in the region are classified by the Arkansas Department of Transportation and county road departments as being either “fracture critical,” “structurally deficient” or both.The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Sunday that based on Arkansas Department of Transportation data that 98 bridges across the state are classified as being both fracture critical and structurally deficient. Those bridges are safe to use despite the ominous-sounding classifications, civil engineers say.
A bridge is designated as being fracture critical based on the way it was built and the materials used in its construction. County, state and federal road departments place a higher maintenance and inspection standards on fracture critical bridges.
The Federal Highway Administration considers a bridge to be structurally deficient if one of the bridge’s deck, substructure or superstructures are in poor or worse condition based on a ranking from zero to nine. Only one of the three components need to be ranked four or lower for the bridge to be classified as structurally deficient.
As of 2017, the Federal Highway Administration uses the term “poor” instead of structurally deficient.
Bridges in the region identified by the Democrat-Gazette as being either fracture critical or structurally deficient include four in Izard County, and one each in Fulton and Searcy counties. No bridges in either Baxter or Marion counties are classified as such.
To the east of Baxter County, those structures include the English Creek bridge on State Highway 289 south of Mammoth Springs; the bridge along Route 21/Gorby Road east of Calico Rock; the West Rocky Bayou bridge on Route 3/Luneberg Road south of Melbourne; and the Route 75 bridge over Poke Bayou north of Mount. Pleasant.
In Searcy County, the structure over Bear Creek on Searcy County Road 278 southwest of Marshall was listed.
The U.S. 63 bridge over the Spring River east of Ravenden was briefly closed May 25 after a routine inspection discovered structural damage. The bridge reopened the following day, and due to redundancies in the its design, is not considered a fracture critical structure. The bridge is also not labeled as being structurally deficient by transportation officials, the Democrat-Gazette reported Sunday.
The Interstate 40 Hernando de Soto Bridge over the Mississippi River that connects West Memphis and Memphis was closed to traffic on May 11 after a large fracture in the bridge’s structure was discovered. The I40 bridge is classified as fracture critical due to its design and heavy traffic volume.
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