Three bridges in Humphreys County and one in Hickman were damaged beyond repair by flooding there this month. Replacing them will begin this fall and could take up to 12 months.
The Aug. 21 storm caused a 1,000-year flood, resulting in millions in damages, destroying more than 250 homes and eroding the land around bridges. The state’s Department of Transportation says the bridges in both directions on State Route 230 over Hurricane Creek was irreparably damaged, as was the bridge on SR 230 over the Piney River and the westbound bridge on State Route 1 going over Trace Creek.
TDOT’s chief engineer, Paul Degges, says two of them were nearing the end of life, but the Trace Creek bridge was not.
“When the big flood hit one of those two bridges, that water was such a huge magnitude that it scoured out around one of the piers,” said Degges. “If you can think about that so much water moving through, it picked up all the soil and rock and all that. With that land removed, the bridge wasn’t stable and sank nearly half a foot into the ground. “
Seven other Humphreys County bridges were damaged, but TDOT says those can be fixed. For now, they remain closed. The list of those bridge closures are listed below.
- Mile Marker 5.23, East Blue Creek Road over Blue Creek
- Mile Marker 4.26, East Blue Creek Road over Blue Creek
- Mile Marker 0.17, Weed Lane over Blue Creek
- Mile Marker 6.56, Bold Springs Road over Hurricane Creek
- Mile Marker 5.45, Trace Creek Road over Trace Creek
- Mile Marker 1.04, Bateman Branch Road over Bateman Branch
- Mile Marker 4.14, Indian Creek Road over Little Hurricane Creek
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