Seismic improvements will cause significant lane closures on the Hernando-DeSoto Bridge starting next week, a major connection between Memphis and the western United States.
Crews will shut down lanes near Exit 1 on the I-40 bridge in order to replace large seismic joints on three bridge piers. Construction will be broken down into three phases, but the first phase calls for total closure of the eastbound lane of the Front Street exit for three weeks.
The next two phases will run through more than 70 days into mid-November and call for wide and overheight loads to be redirected, Tennessee Department of Transportation officials said.
Beginning Sept. 7, I-40 along the DeSoto bridge will be reduced to one, 11-foot travel lane in each direction. All wide loads will be diverted to the Memphis-Arkansas I-55 bridge.
Those lane reductions will continue into October when the I-40 westbound entrance from Front street and Riverside Drive will also be closed. Due to those closures, wide and overheight loads will be diverted to I-155 in Dyersburg.
According to TDOT, the seismic improvements are part of on-going, 10-year, $180-million effort to retrofit the bridge to withstand a 7,0 magnitude earthquake.