Concrete debris from a hole in the Scott Hamilton Road overpass fell onto eastbound lanes of Interstate 30, causing lane closures for several hours Friday.
Officials with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department were notified of the hole at about 12:30 p.m. Friday after motorists traveling I-30 reported that broken concrete was falling onto the roadway, department spokesman Danny Straessle said.
The age of the overpass, built in 1961, paired with about 9,500 vehicles traveling across it daily is thought to be the primary cause of the hole, which was about 2 feet in diameter, Straessle said.
“It’s kind of like a pothole, except on a bridge,” he said, adding that it’s “normal wear-and-tear” for a 50-yearold bridge.
“The integrity of the bridge is fine,” he added.
A person could see through the hole and view the traffic below on the interstate before it was patched up just before 6 p.m. Friday.
No injuries or damage to vehicles were reported, Straessle said.
Two eastbound lanes of I-30 were closed for about five hours, and a northbound lane on Scott Hamilton was closed for about six hours while workers assessed and repaired the roadway.
The department last inspected the 261-foot-long overpass in August 2011 andwas scheduled to check it again this August, Straessle said.
He didn’t know off-hand if the department had found any irregularities with the bridge, but he said that if crews found any flaws, they wouldn’t have reopened it until the problem was remedied. A similar hole formed on the Cantrell Road viaduct near Little Rock’s Riverdale neighborhood on March 8.
During that incident, Straessle said such holes happen on occasion.
“You’re not used to being able to see through the bridge deck,” he said then. “It makes it a little more scary than it is.” Information for this article was contributed by Aziza Musa of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 04/20/2013