America's River Crossing – Memphis Flyer

Memphis residents are invited Thursday to hear about the $787.5 million bridge proposed to replace the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge, also called the I-55 Bridge or “old bridge.”

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will host the session scheduled for Thursday from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. at the Central Station Hotel’s Amtrak Station. Another public meeting will come next week in West Memphis at the Eugene Woods Civic Center Center on April 25th, from 5 p.m.-7 p.m.

As those talks begin, work continues on the current I-55 Bridge and its interchange. For more than a year, crews have replaced the old cloverleaf interchange and replaced much of the bridge’s worn-out decking.

That work began back in 2009 with public hearings at Central Station, before its conversion into a hotel and when it was still owned and operated by the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA). Hearings and approvals continued until the project was sent of for bids in 2022. That project is slated for completion early next year.

The new bridge, which TDOT is calling, “America’s River Crossing,” would completely replace the old bridge, which would be demolished. Construction on the new 1.5 mile span over the Mississippi River could begin as soon as 2026 and be complete as early as 2030, according to state documents.

“America’s River Crossing” was the name given to the idea of a new, third bridge over the river pushed by the Greater Memphis Chamber in 2021. At the time, the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge was the only bridge across the river in Memphis. The newer Hernando DeSoto Bridge was closed at the time after officials discovered a crack in the structure.

Even though the new bridge project would still leave Memphis with only two bridges (St. Louis has 10), the Chamber appears to be on board the new project, retweeting information to Thursday’s public meeting.

🌉🚗 Public Meeting Alert! 🚧📢

Exciting news! 🎉 TDOT & ARDOT are teaming up to host TWO open house public meetings! 🤝 Join us to dive deep into the America’s River Crossing project on I-55 Over the Mississippi River Bridge Replacement. pic.twitter.com/UEWzveSCUL
— Greater Memphis Chamber (@MemphisChamber) April 11, 2024

The old bridge needs replacing, officials say, because its condition and recent appraisals have “raised concerns.” The bridge is 75 years old. It does not meet current seismic standards, which could put drivers in dangers should an earthquake occur. Retrofitting the bridge could cost between $250 million to $500 million, according to a state report.

Also, the old bridge is small. It has two, 10-foot travel lanes in each direction separated by a concrete divider, with two-foot shoulders on each side of the roadway.

”The existing I-55 bridge was not designed to handle the current or future volume of daily traffic, or truck volume, resulting in significant mobility and safety concerns,” reads the report, noting traffic counts there could be as high as 58,000 daily in 2030. “With traffic forecasts indicating substantial growth, the need for a new bridge becomes apparent, demanding increased capacity and improved traffic operations.”

The new bridge would add a new lane in each direction, for a total of six lanes, and have 12-foot shoulders on both sides of the roadway.

The new version would increase capacity, making for smoother, safer flow of traffic and freight. For these and other reasons, the financial benefit of a new bridge could be as high as $529 million, the state said.

The old bridge has higher-than-normal rates of crashes and bottlenecks, too. The state report found the bridge crash rate was 86 percent higher than the statewide average. The bridge also ranks in the top 10 percent of bottleneck headed south and 12 percent of bottlenecks northbound. Both are attributed to congestion.

A new bridge could cost up to $787.5 million. To pay for it, TDOT has request $393.7 million from the Federal Highway Adminstration. The other half would be split between TDOT and the Arkansas Department of Transportation. Tennessee’s portion would flow from dedicated funds in the Transportation Modernization Act, which included $3.3 billion for public projects.

Find a fact sheet here.

Memphis business leaders hope to re-ignite the urgency for a new bridge — a third bridge — across the Mississippi River in a project they’re calling America’s River Crossing.

The Greater Memphis Chamber hosted a call with business leaders, politicians, and transportation leaders from Tennessee and Arkansas Wednesday to make their case for the need of a new bridge. The crossing at Memphis is now served by two bridges, the Hernando De Soto Bridge on the north and the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge on the south. The importance of the crossing (and the need for a new bridge) was demonstrated last year, the group said, when the Hernando De Soto Bridge was closed for months after a crack in the structure was discovered.

The “new” bridge closure pushed all I-40 traffic (estimated to be around 40,000 vehicles daily) to the 73-year-old Memphis-Arkansas Bridge. Transportation experts on the call Wednesday said that bridge is structurally sound and the added traffic did not shorten its life. But the closure did snarl traffic for miles creating hours-long delays in road routes that once took minutes.

“We found out last year that within days of the closure, the movement of people was impacted across the United States and within a week, movement of freight was impacted across the world,” said James Collins, a member of the Chamber’s transportation committee and a principal at Kimley-Horn, a Memphis planning and design firm. “So, this is a definitely a project of national significance.”

West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon said the closure clogged his city with 18-wheelers using neighborhood streets to bypass traffic. Children couldn’t play in their yards. Road-rage shootings stressed an already stressed police force. Curbs, gutters, and more were damaged and destroyed. But, he said, “God covered West Memphis.”

“If that didn’t do anything else, it underscored how critical the need for a third bridge is to our nation’s supply chain, critical military, and the ability of tourists to move north to south and east to west in our area,” McClendon said. “I’m glad we have learned that a year ago but I look forward to continuing with the progress to ensure our bridges stay functional and keeping the sound of a third bridge into the ears of those who make the decisions.”

CredIt: Tennessee Department of Transportation

That sound rang loudly for weeks last summer as crews worked to repair the bridge. Opinion pieces were published in the daily newspapers and the issue was debated at length on social media, although much of the volume turned down as the bridge re-opened.

The idea sounded far-fetched to some. But the idea has been studied before, many times before. Collins cited the 2006 Mississippi River crossing feasibility and location study. A 2009 regional infrastructure plan by the Chamber included a third bridge in its recommendations. The Southern Gateway plan once again looked at a new bridge here in 2010 but the plan was put on hold indefinitely in 2014.

Those studies sited a new bridge at the Mississippi/Tennessee border, and at the Pidgeon Industrial Park, at the north loop of I-240. Another study suggested simply replacing the I-55 bridge with a new one.

“People have short memories and the bridge closing is in the rear-view mirror, no pun intended” said Bill Dunavant, CEO of Dunavant Enterprises, a cotton merchant with divisions dedicated to logistics and development. “But when you look at a crisis, it creates an opportunity.”

That opportunity is that third bridge, he said. While the bridge project would likely take years to begin (after environmental studies, finding a new location, designing the new bridge, and getting a host of federal approvals), the time to begin funding the project is now, the group said.

“This is a bridge of national significance and one of the most critical crossings in America, as it relates to freight transportation and logistics at the city that is the most critical in the hemisphere or the world for transportation — America’s River Crossing,” said Bobby White, the chamber’s chief public policy officer. “We want to demonstrate the support of the business community in this effort — not to say one [bridge site] or the other — but for our need for starting this project and moving it forward.”