Crews repairing a small crack in one beam under the southbound bridge on Interstate 81 at Exit 23 in Mosheim finished early Sunday, in less time than had been expected.

Travis Brickey, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, said this morning in a telephone interview that repairs begun at 10 p.m. Saturday were completed by 5:30 a.m. Sunday.

During that period, southbound traffic had to leave the interstate at Exit 23, then immediately take the onramp to resume southbound travel.

Crews from General Constructors, of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., were on hand during the night for repair of a stress fracture crack that TDOT had allowed 12 hours to complete.

The crack, and others on the northbound bridge that were repaired last week, was discovered during scheduled maintenance and inspection of the bridges last summer.

Traffic had to be removed from the southbound interstate bridge Saturday night and early Sunday so that special welding could be done to the beam without interference from vibrations.

Cars and trucks passing over the bridge cause support beams to vibrate slightly, TDOT engineers have said.

"There was only one crack to fix and there were no problems," Brickey said.

Greene County sheriff's deputies assisted the Tennessee Highway Patrol in directing traffic.

Northbound traffic was not affected.

Repairs to the northbound bridge were completed Nov. 14-15. Those repairs took a few hours longer than had been planned, but there were no delays until late in the morning.

Brickey said the work Saturday night and early Sunday finished the repair phase of work on the bridge, though some painting and related work remains to be done.