Unified Testing Services completes MDOT bridge inspection

Unified Testing Services, a member of the TÜV Rheinland Group, recently completed shop fabrication inspection services for the Mississippi River Bridge, located along U.S. Highway 82 crossing the Mississippi River between Lake Village, Ark., and Greenville, Miss.

Contracted by the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the testing and inspection services company inspected the bridge’s steel approaches. UTS first began work on the bridge’s center span in September 2002.

At 1,378 ft, the Mississippi River Bridge boasts the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge on the Mississippi River and is the fourth longest in North America. The bridge is expected to open in Fall 2010 to traffic between Arkansas and Mississippi.

“The quality of the workmanship and precision in the fabrication of all the structural steel components was paramount in our minds from the very beginning of this project,” said Mitchell K. Carr, state bridge engineer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

Based in Woodstock, Ala., UTS offers a wide variety of testing and inspection services focused on materials, construction, transportation, facilities and environmental engineering. One of the company’s specialties includes shop fabrication inspection of structural steel bridges.