ODOT speaks about bridge inspections after barge hits bridge near Sallisaw, construction beams fall off bridge near Fort Gibson

A barge hit a bridge on Saturday near Sallisaw and high-speed winds on Friday caused two construction beams to fall off a bridge near Fort Gibson over the Arkansas River.

Video shared with us from viewer Dayton Holland shows a barge colliding with the US-59 bridge south of Sallisaw at the Kerr Reservoir.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol shut down the bridge around 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) inspected it before opening it back up to traffic.

“Anytime we have a cause for concern, bridge inspectors will go out there and look and make sure that everything is sound. If they see any problems that they think the bridge needs to be closed, they’ll shut it down immediately,” said ODOT spokesperson T.J. Gerlach.

Just the day before in Fort Gibson, strong winds caused two construction beams to fall at the Arkansas River bridge at Highway 62.

According to ODOT, the bridge is still safe to drive on, but the navigation channel will stay closed.

Muskogee County Emergency Management said one beam is still in the channel and divers will work to clear it out on Monday.

They also said the south bridge remains open for east and west bound traffic.

With the recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, and nearly 22 years since the deadly I-40 bridge collapse near Webbers Falls , safety is top of mind.

Gerlach explained what engineers look for when they inspect the 6,800 highway bridges across our state .

“They look for cracks in the concrete that might be of concern. They look for scarring on that concrete that might be of concern, as well as cracks and anything of concern on the steel members themselves,” Gerlach said.