After weeks of hard work following a big scare and shutdown, the Hernando de Soto Bridge connecting Arkansas and Tennessee is open. It's easier to travel between West Memphis and Memphis than it has been in some time. Doubtless the Interstate 55 bridge is breathing a sigh of relief.
Most folks can probably recall the viral photos showing a large crack in a metal beam. The person who discovered the crack made a panicked 911 call that folks needed to get off the bridge immediately. Thankfully, they were able to.
Uncle Sam has agencies investigating how this crack went unnoticed for so long. This will lead to reports and finger-pointing some months down the line. But for now, it's a party on both sides of the river, according to the papers.
"The Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River between Memphis and West Memphis fully reopened Monday, four days ahead of schedule," the papers say.
" 'For my city, we are partying in the street,' said West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon. 'It's a great day, having both sides of the bridge open. It's some type of normalcy.' "
There's more than leisure travel to consider, especially when your state is home to a Fortune 500 trucking and logistics company like J.B. Hunt and other transport companies. Having that bridge shut down cost Arkansas' trucking companies a considerable chunk of change.
The Arkansas Trucking Association sent out a note on June 24 detailing some of those costs. From May 11 to the date of the press release, the ATA said the industry had absorbed more than $70 million in unanticipated costs. The ATA went on to say at one point the Interstate 40 bridge closure was costing the trucking industry an estimated $2.4 million per day (it eventually dropped to $936,000 a day after some lane tweaks).
Do you know how much it costs to operate a tractor-trailer? The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) reports the average to be $71.78 an hour or $1.20 a minute. Compare that to your Toyota Camry.
So you can understand why transport and logistical companies in Arkansas are excited to see the bridge fully open again and what that means for the trucking economy in this state.
Before the bridge closed, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said the 3.3-mile structure carried around 60,000 vehicles per day. That's a lot of people who are no longer so inconvenienced.
If you've kept your eyes on Washington lately, you might have heard the Senate is making progress on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Both Republicans and Democrats signed on to properly fund "hard infrastructure" across the country.
Reuters provided a breakdown of how much money is allocated for what. Roads, bridges, and major projects have $110 billion of funding dedicated to them. And hopefully some of that money can be used to help fix other bridges in Arkansas.
InfrastructureReportCard.com reported America's overall infrastructure received a grade of C-, which is a letter we'd have been grounded for if we brought it home to our parents in grade school.
According to the report, Arkansas has 12,902 bridges. Nearly 5 percent of them were structurally deficient in 2019.
The state also has 193 high hazard dams, and 31 percent of Arkansas' roads are in poor condition. The report says each driver pays $671 per year in costs thanks to driving on roads in need of repair. When the average individual income in Arkansas is just $25,758, how many folks can afford that $671 in annual car report costs?
If Washington does agree to spend more money, Arkansas needs to make sure it carefully considers what projects to spend it on. There's an awful lot of need, and this state can't afford to waste the money. Nobody wants a repeat of the I-40 bridge shutdown.
But you know what else nobody wants? A repeat of the Webbers Falls I-40 bridge disaster from 2002. That horrific event sent tractor-trailers and cars into the Arkansas River, killing 14 people. So folks in these latitudes know how important it is to prevent bridge collapses.
For now, let's just celebrate the West Memphis-East West Memphis bridge reopening. Thank you to the inspectors who acted quickly to shut it down and prevent loss of life. Thank you construction crews for repairing the damage. Thank you to those engineers who engineered-up the fix.
To all the folks driving across into West Memphis to check out the dog races, welcome to Arkansas. To Arkansans driving across into The Volunteer State to eat at Rendezvous, hopefully we'll see you again soon.