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Webbers Falls Bridge

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austrini:
About a month ago I drove from Dallas to Fayetteville, Ark. and ended up going over the Webbers Falls Bridge on I-40. I went that way on purpose because I had wanted to see it, and I noticed that it looks ... well... crappy. There is some concrete that has shifted and been patched and a few asphalt patches and fixes as well. I wonder if that is the old part of the bridge only, though. I had been expecting something really strong and new looking like the photos of the new I-35W bridge in Minnesota.

Did they completely rebuild the bridge after it got knocked down? Did they just rebuild a portion of it?
I also thought there would be some kind of sign noting that it was *that* bridge but I didnt notice anything. I'm just curious about its status, if anyone knows.
Photo of it below, taken in late April.

Scott5114:

--- Quote from: austrini on May 23, 2009, 09:53:16 AM --- I went that way on purpose because I had wanted to see it, and I noticed that it looks ... well... crappy.
--- End quote ---

Welcome to Oklahoma!  :)


--- Quote from: austrini on May 23, 2009, 09:53:16 AM ---Did they completely rebuild the bridge after it got knocked down? Did they just rebuild a portion of it?
--- End quote ---

I believe that they merely rebuilt the portion that got knocked into the river. The rest of the structure was sound. The big priority here was to get I-40 open again as soon as possible, as the detour onto OK-100 and US-64 was severely impacting businesses in the towns of Gore and Webbers Falls–the roads were so busy with I-40 traffic nobody wanted to get out and shop there.

FHWA was actually impressed with ODOT for how quickly they rebuilt the bridge and got the Interstate open again, and either the Administrator or the USDOT Secretary said as much in a press conference.

Greybear:
I may be wrong here, but I believe that the entire bridge was re-built.

Scott5114:
I wouldn't see why they would do that–the only reason the bridge collapsed was because of the barge hitting one of the center supports. One would think that the only portion that would need to be rebuilt is that center support and the spans that fell into the river.

austrini:
I've always harbored a bit of wariness about Oklahoma's roads because as a kid the pavement went from awesome to chunky whenever you went over the Red River. I think it just happened to be where I crossed usually though, at US 69/75.

I think I had just imagined it would be a fancy new bridge like in Minnesota, but I suppose the circumstances were different. Right before I went over it I was on the ramp from US 69 NB to I-40 EB and I thought I had a flat tire because of the noise and motion the pavement was giving my car... my friend made us pull over to look. Then I said "ah, Oklahoma"

I'm not totally dissing OK Roads, there is some awesome stuff there. I was just a bit curious about the history of that bridge! I hope they put up a sign or something one day.

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