Tag: Hernando DeSoto bridge

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At Large Opinion

Haunted by Waters

A view of the Mississippi from Loosahatchie Bar in October 2022 (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)

“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise; it has always torn down the petty basketwork of the engineers and poured its giant floods withersoever it chose, and it will continue to do this.” — Mark Twain

The Mississippi River has long defined the city of Memphis, literally marking its border on the west, and shaping its commerce and its soul throughout its history. But for a city framed by one of the world’s largest rivers, Memphis is woefully underserved when it comes to vehicular bridges.

We have two: The Memphis and Arkansas Bridge, which is traversed by I-55 and perennially under repair. It was constructed in 1949 and is locally known as the “old bridge.” And then there is the Hernando DeSoto Bridge (aka the “new bridge”; aka the “M bridge”), which opened in 1973 and carries vehicular traffic for I-40. It was closed for months a couple years back because of a large crack that developed in one of its I-beams.

The Memphis and Arkansas Bridge is not built to withstand earthquakes, and I wouldn’t put house money on the “new bridge” surviving one either. If we’re being candid, Memphis is one earthquake away from being without a Mississippi River crossing, which would absolutely decimate the city’s economy by diverting 100,000 vehicles a day to other bridges north or south of here. For comparison’s sake, the city of St. Louis, also on the Mississippi River, has 11 bridges.

But Memphis got some good news last week. It was overshadowed by another minor news event involving a presidential candidate’s ear, but, hey, we’re getting a new bridge! A $393.7 million federal grant for a replacement span over the big river was announced for the states of Tennessee and Arkansas. The new “new bridge” will replace the old “old bridge,” and will be designed to meet current seismic standards.

The news was greeted with great rejoicing by GOP Governor Bill Lee: “This unprecedented investment in Memphis marks the single-largest transportation investment in Tennessee state history and will be transformative for our infrastructure.” It goes without saying that almost all Republicans, including Tennessee’s congressional delegation, voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which is funding the construction. Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen was the only Tennessee representative to vote for the act. It will take a few years for Memphis’ newest bridge to be completed, but at least we’re making progress.

Our river was in the news for other reasons last week, as well. Mississippi River cruises, long a financial boon for Memphis and other river cities, have taken a major hit due to drastic river-flow fluctuations caused by climate change. Flooding and drought have led to the cancellation of millions of dollars worth of cruises, according to a New York Times article:

“While operators are building new ships, and towns and cities are investing in infrastructure to welcome boat traffic, cruises on the Mississippi face mounting challenges from an increasing number of droughts and floods. … Memphis made its $40 million Beale Street Landing the centerpiece of a larger redevelopment of parks and trails snaking along six miles of Mississippi shoreline. Last year, more than half of the 128 scheduled cruise ship landings there were canceled, mostly because of low water levels that made it impossible for the boats to reach the dock.”

Forest and wetland destruction, new dams, and dredging have exacerbated the Mississippi’s natural flow fluctuations. And climate change has caused even more dramatic shifts in water levels. It was only two Octobers ago that you could basically walk across the Mississippi at Memphis. River traffic was down to one lane, with barges stacked up single file for miles and miles, awaiting their turn. And it was only last month that the Mississippi River at St. Paul had the eighth-highest crest ever recorded.

No one knows what the future holds, a situation for which the novelist Norman Maclean had wise words: “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” 

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Public Invited to Weigh In on Proposed $787M Bridge over Mississippi

Tennessee Department of Transportation

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.

Tennessee Department of Transportation
Tennessee Department of Transportation

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.  

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. 

Tennessee Department of Transportation

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. 

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Palestine Protest

Posted to Instagram by Memphis Voices for Palestine

Memphis on the internet.

Palestine Protest

“WE TOOK OVER THE BRIDGE Y’ALL!!!!!” Memphis Voices for Palestine (MVP) posted to Instagram last Saturday. “FREE PALESTINE!!!!”

The event was called Shut It Down for Palestine: Memphis Protest. A flyer for the MVP event said, “Biden, no more U.S. aid to Israel! The people demand a ceasefire! Free, free Palestine!”

The protest began at Memphis City Hall last Saturday afternoon. Protesters then made their way to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Once they amassed on the bridge, they stopped traffic for more than an hour. Though the group promoted the event for a week online, Memphis Police Department did not respond until protesters took the bridge.

Posted to X by Chelsea Chandler

“The amount of people in my comments who act as if they’d be willing to commit vehicular homicide is alarming,” Fox13 meteorologist Chelsea Chandler tweeted Sunday. “Regardless of the circumstances, it’s still murder.”

On Monday, state Sen. Brent Taylor tweeted that he requested a review of the event by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations “to determine which individuals are responsible for this action and refer the findings to the appropriate office to be fully prosecuted.”

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Chamber Presses for Third Bridge with “America’s River Crossing” Campaign

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. 

Credit: Greater Memphis Chamber

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. 

Credit: Greater Memphis Chamber

“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.”

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Dammit, Gannett, Do What?, and Gov. Lee Dragged

Memphis on the internet.

Dammit, Gannett

Digital hands were wrung in the (Memphis-based) All News Is Local Facebook group last week. The Commercial Appeal flubbed a cutline, calling the “new” bridge the “Hernando Be Soto” bridge. Jokey comments claimed the copy editor “be sotted” and “that be a mess.”

CA alum Otis Sanford made the original post, claiming “errors in headlines and cutlines, written by someone far away from Memphis, are embarrassing and sloppy.” Current CA executive editor Mark Russell commented that these things were “mostly written by local journalists. No one in Arizona is editing CA copy or writing headlines.”

Do what now?

YouTuber IsmokeHiphop Live (108K subscribers) proved the power of niche audiences last week with a video (3K+ views) titled “Memphis Rapper Pooh Shiesty DM’s OPPS Moo Slime His Addy From Miami Jail…GUESS WHO’S MAD?” As of press time, Flyer oldsters were still perplexed.

Lee Dragged

Critics lambasted Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Twitter last week after a story surfaced about a state program that pays farmers to vaccinate their cows but had no similar program for humans and the COVID-19 vaccine.

“You care more about playing politics than the people. It’s obvious now. Be better,” tweeted Memphis City Council member JB Smiley.

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Hernando De Soto Bridge To Reopen Next Week

Credit: TDOT

The Hernando De Soto Bridge will partially reopen next week, officials with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced Wednesday. 

Eastbound lanes of the bridge will open Monday at 6 a.m. Westbound lanes will open Friday at a time not yet determined. This schedule could change with any complications that arise. TDOT will update the plan on Friday.

TDOT said contractors will have completed all the phase three plating by Friday. They will begin to demobilize, break down platforms, remove equipment, and barriers starting with the eastbound direction. Doing this one side at a time is safest for workers.

 However, the bridge will remain an active work zone, TDOT said, and they ask drivers motorists to pay attention to all signs on the bridge. 

…our team made the repairs and performed extensive inspections to ensure it’s structurally sound for many years to come.

TDOT Commissioner Clay Bright

TDOT Commissioner Clay Bright said when TDOT closed the bridge in May, “we did not know then what all would be involved” but the team “worked tirelessly to safely reopen the bridge as soon as possible.”

“We know having the bridge closed has been incredibly inconvenient,” said TDOT Commissioner Clay Bright. “We appreciate the public’s patience while our team made the repairs and performed extensive inspections to ensure it’s structurally sound for many years to come.”

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Bridges to be Lit Purple for Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Hernando DeSoto Bridge (Credit: Mighty Lights Memphis)

The Hernando DeSoto and Big River Crossing bridges will be lit purple Monday, July 19th, for TN Voices in honor of July being Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

Officially recognized in June 2008, Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month (also called BIPOC Mental Health Month) was created to bring awareness to the struggles that underrepresented groups face in regard to mental illness in the U.S.

The theme of the 2021 BIPOC Mental Health Month is “Strength in Communities,” with a focus on alternative mental health supports. “Our 2021 toolkit will examine community-developed systems of support created to fill in gaps within traditional systems that may overlook cultural and historical factors that impede BIPOC and QTBIPOC mental health,” states Mental Health America on its website. 

More information about TN Voices can be found at tnvoices.org.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Honoré, Different Memphis, and Memphis Bridge Crack

A roundup of Memphis on the World Wide Web.

The red stairs

Utah-based guitar string and accessory manufacturer, Black Harbor Sound, posted an announcement, featuring Memphis-based band Honoré astride a familiar set of red stairs, to Instagram last week. The guitar company was welcoming Honoré to their roster of endorsed artists with a shot of the frequently photographed stairs inside Crosstown Concourse. 

Memphis is Different

A hilarious tweet from @panduh__ said, “Memphis is DIFFERENT different.” The tweet showed a screenshot of several messages from a DoorDash delivery person who was picking up from the Happy Mexican.

“Aye, bruh,” the message reads. “They said they can’t make yo food cuz they chefs arguin. They said cancel the order.”

Cracking up

Memphis Bridge Crack, the official unofficial Twitter account of the crack in the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, has kept the comedy flowing as strong as the waters below it.

For example, on a tweet from a Wall Street Journal story that noted “how one failed bridge in Memphis is costing business,” the Crack commented, “Ahem. I think you mean one *failed inspection team.* I didn’t do any of this myself.”

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MEMernet: Majestic Grille Tweeted by the White House

(Credit: The White House/Twitter)

On Tuesday, the White House (yes, that one) tweeted examples of how the closure of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, which it just called “the Mississippi River bridge,” was hurting the area economy.

In a five-part tweet, the White House featured quotes from West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon, a dentist, a business owner, and it noted that revenues at Southland Casino Racing were down 33 percent since May.

One tweet featured Patrick Reilly, co-owner and chef at The Majestic Grille Downtown.

The restaurant responded with a Facebook post that reads, “thanks for shining a light … on the struggles we’re facing due to the I-40 bridge closure. Not only are our [Arkansas] guests canceling reservations, vendor deliveries are delayed and staff can’t get to and from work. All this on top of massive revenue loss from COVID. It’s time to pass President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Plan!”

Credit: The Majestic Grille/Facebook
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At Large Opinion

Warning Shot

Photo: Tennessee Department of Transportation

Some of you may remember that back in 2015 the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced plans to shut down the I-55 bridge over the Mississippi in Memphis for nine months. TDOT said it needed to do so in order to install a “roundabout” interchange on the Memphis end of the bridge. The entire project was to begin in early 2017 and last through November 2019, effectively screwing up traffic across the bridge and through South Memphis for two years.

It didn’t happen. And that’s mainly because some people with common sense (including this newspaper’s staff) raised hell against it, pointing out that shutting down the “old bridge” was a nightmare scenario, one that would funnel 100,000 vehicles a day (double its then-current traffic count) across the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and expose the entire Central U.S. to a potential shutdown of commerce should something happen to the one remaining bridge.

Over in West Memphis, state Senator Keith Ingram’s hair was on fire. He rightly pointed out that the shutdown would “devastate local economies throughout Eastern Arkansas and would cripple emergency services in the event of an accident or natural disaster.”

The late Phil Trenary, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, cited a post-9/11 study that showed that closing both of the city’s bridges would have a negative economic impact of about $11 billion to $15 billion per year, adding that the impact on business would be “significant to not only the local economy but to the national economy.”

The Flyer’s Toby Sells wrote a comprehensive cover story on the subject. We editorialized against the shutdown vociferously and often. Eventually, thanks to building public, political, and business opposition, the TDOT plan was mothballed, hopefully forever. The area’s leaders came to recognize that Memphis would be in big trouble if we ever got down to one bridge.

Oops.

As we all know, thanks to the discovery of a fissure in a structural beam on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, the feared “down-to-one-bridge” scenario has happened. And as was predicted in 2015, traffic is backed up on I-40, through the city, and on the south I-240 loop, as 80,000 vehicles a day are funneled across a narrow highway bridge built 70 years ago to handle one-fourth that amount of traffic.

Imagine if the break on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge had been discovered in, say, June 2017, during TDOT’s proposed shutdown. Or worse, imagine if something should go awry on the I-55 bridge now. Can you say Helena, Arkansas? Or Dyersburg, Tennessee? Those are the nearest two Mississippi River crossings. Local — and national — commerce would suffer a horrific hit.

But thankfully the TDOT bridge-closure didn’t happen in 2017. People raised hell. The bureaucrats were stopped. Now, with any luck, the “new bridge” gets fixed in the next couple months, and we get back to normal. But we need a new normal. There’s a lesson to be learned here, and the time to act on it is now.

We have two bridges, both over a half-century old, both facing deterioration and maintenance issues. It’s obvious that Memphis needs a third bridge across the Mississippi. And it isn’t just about Memphis. It’s about the entire interstate commerce system through the middle of America, North and South, relying on a rickety, aging infrastructure that was built for the 1960s and 1970s. A new bridge addresses current and future issues. It could integrate with the I-69 corridor and maybe even incorporate space for future high-speed rail. Why not think big?

It’s not like we’d be asking for the moon. St. Louis has six major bridges across the Mississippi. Davenport, Iowa, has three. Hell, Dubuque, Iowa, has two bridges. We’re tied with Dubuque, people. It’s in our interest and in the country’s interest to plan for the future, not to wait until the two extant bridges fall completely apart. Officeholders and business leaders from Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi need to get together and form a commission to explore the best way to get this moving.

Patching a crack with overlaid slabs of steel is a temporary solution, a band-aid that doesn’t address the overarching issues of a deteriorating infrastructure. Moving toward getting a new bridge should become a priority now — not when we’re forced to deal with another bridge shutdown. We’ve been shown a glimpse of the future. It’s time to face it, realistically.