Tag: Memphis & Arkansas Bridge

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News The Fly-By

TDOT Delays I-55 Bridge Project

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

Turns out, we can drive I-55, at least for another year.

Last week the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) hit pause on a plan to build a new interchange for Interstate-55 at E. H. Crump and Riverside. That $60 million plan would have closed the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge for nine months, beginning in 2017.

Opposition to the bridge closure mounted quickly after news of the plan broke in the Flyer in late May. By the beginning of July, TDOT Commissioner John Schroer remained resolute in his decision to implement the plan. When asked if anything would change his mind, Schroer told the Flyer that, “It’s not a case of changing my mind. It’s about making the right decisions, and, in this case, we made the right decisions.”

Brandon Dill

Less than a month later, TDOT announced it would idle the project for one year as it studied the project’s impact on the regional economy and the communities surrounding the proposed construction.

TDOT will take the year to compare two plans. One is the plan on the table, with a three-year construction period and a nine-month closure of the bridge. The other has a six-year construction period and would close only some traffic lanes across the bridge, but there would be no full closure.

“Over the past several weeks, we have heard from residents, business owners, elected officials, and other stakeholders in Memphis and in Arkansas, and we understand there is a significant level of concern over a full closure of the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge,” Schroer said in a news release Friday. “We want to take the opportunity to address those concerns before moving forward with construction.”

The loudest, most formal opposition to the plan came from Arkansas state Senator Keith Ingram of West Memphis. Ingram launched a petition at change.org to fight the bridge closure, saying it would “devastate” local economies and “cripple” emergency services.

Ingram said he and a group of state and local officials had a “good and meaningful” meeting with Schroer two weeks ago. He said delaying the project is a “good first step” in the process to build a new interchange.

“I think sometimes, and I’m not saying it’s the case here, but sometimes in Little Rock, or Nashville, or Jackson, Mississippi, it’s easy to make some of these decisions until you really see first-hand and understand the daily disruption and the regional impact that closing this bridge would have for all of us,” Ingram said.

The Greater Memphis Chamber also opposed closing the bridge, fearing the move could have a multi-billion-dollar negative effect on the regional economy.

“We appreciate TDOT’s leadership on this issue and support their plan to delay the project for a year to complete additional analysis of the impact and to work with Arkansas and regional businesses on any alternatives to a complete closure of the bridge during construction,” said Dexter Muller, the Chamber’s senior advisor.

The plan delay was good news for West Memphian Jim Russell. He’s retired and travels to Memphis for medical visits and to volunteer at the Memphis Botanic Garden.

“I was planning on not going to Memphis at all anymore, except for some doctors’ appointments I couldn’t change,” Russell said. “I was going to cut out the Botanic Gardens completely, but now I won’t have to do that.”

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

A Bridge Beyond

The Tennessee Department of Transportation announced last week that the I-55 “old bridge” across the Mississippi would be closed for nine months, beginning in 2017, so that the department could build new exit and entrance ramps. This is a really horrible idea, with potentially disastrous economic, public safety, and even national security ramifications. West Memphis is already really upset about the plan. In Memphis, not so much, not yet, anyway.

This must change, people. Attention must be paid to this.

During the nine months TDOT is planning to close the bridge (and we know all highway projects are always finished on time), all north/south traffic on I-55 and all east/west traffic on I-40 will be funneled across the the Hernando DeSoto “M Bridge.”

Using TDOT’s 2013 AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) numbers, the I-55 bridge is traversed by 55,829 vehicles a day. The I-40 M Bridge is crossed by 55,630 vehicles a day. So, the plan, if you can call it that, will double the number of vehicles crossing the M Bridge every day. In addition, I-240, which runs through the center of the city, will become the main conduit for I-55 traffic to get to and from the M Bridge. The current AADT number for I-240 is 97,292 vehicles a day, much of it local and commuter. Let’s add another 55,000 vehicles, many of them 18-wheelers, to that number, shall we? Good times.

But here’s the real crux of the matter: Closing the I-55 bridge is not a decision that should be made by a Tennessee state agency with a vested interest in new construction projects. This project affects three states and two vital national interstates. An earthquake, a barge accident, or God forbid, a terrorist attack on the M bridge, and the transportation system for the central U.S. would melt down. To cross the Mississippi River, you’d have to funnel hundreds of thousands of vehicles to Dyersburg or Helena, Arkansas, a night-marish scenario. (Not to mention the difficulty of getting over to Pancho’s for happy hour and cheese dip.)

Even if there is no major disaster, Memphians will be royally screwed by this plan. You think commuting from Southaven or Cordova or Collierville is a pain now? A big wreck on the M bridge, and you may be sitting on the outer loop til lunchtime.

In St. Louis, the only other centrally located major city on the Mississippi, there are eight bridges across the river. You shut one down, it’s not the end of the world. You shut down the I-55 bridge and the Mid-South will be down to one way to cross the Mississippi. That’s a recipe for disaster.

If there were only one bridge now and it needed a new ramp, do you think TDOT might have figured out a way to keep it open during construction? I do. Our elected officials — local, state, and federal — in all three affected states need to get ahead of this ill-considered project before it’s too late.

In 1971, Memphis activists and their lawyers stopped the federal government from building I-40 through Midtown. The combined political will of the Mid-South ought to be able to stop a state bureaucracy from this foolishness.

Not to be melodramatic or anything, but if the I-55 bridge is closed, the terrorists win. And we lose.

Categories
News The Fly-By

“Old Bridge” Closure Could Pinch Memphis

CREDIT: Courtesy TDOT

Predictions of the consequences from the planned, nine-months closure of the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge range from inconvenient to nightmarish, but a Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) official said there was simply no other way.

Speculation and worry followed last week’s announcement that TDOT plans to close the bridge while it builds a new interchange at I-55 and E.H. Crump. A public meeting about the project was held in West Memphis Monday. Another meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday at Memphis Area Transit Authority Central Station. 

The project will cost close to $35 million and will replace the current cloverleaf design of the interchange, which TDOT calls “outdated,” claiming it poses safety and efficiency concerns. The new design will feature a roundabout to connect I-55 traffic to downtown Memphis and curved ramps to allow I-55 thru traffic to continue on and off the bridge without slowing down.

Courtesy TDOT

An artists rendering of the proposed new interchange at I-55 and Crump.

The three-year construction project won’t begin until spring 2016 and the planned closure of the bridge won’t begin until spring 2017, said B.J. Doughty, TDOT communications director. 

“We do not take this lightly; this is a major undertaking for us, as well,” Doughty said. “If there had been any other way … we would choose not to shut it down. We realize this is an enormous inconvenience for people.”

The long curved ramps to I-55 will be built over the roundabout, where the cloverleaf is now, Doughty said. To make way for big bridge pieces like beams and piers, there will be no place for traffic to pass, she said.

During construction, all I-55 traffic will have to be routed across the Hernando DeSoto M Bridge, and that has people worried.

Manny Belen, deputy engineer for the city of Memphis, said his office has expressed to TDOT that the project needs to be sensitive to the impact on businesses, commuters, downtown residents, freight movement, and emergency responders. 

“Additionally, we’ve expressed concerns about the impact of the planned detour through the Midtown section of I-240 and the inevitable traffic congestion,” Belen said. “The response from TDOT is that this nine-months closure is the most prudent direction and the least impactful.”

Congressman Steve Cohen said he does not support the planned closure and believes the construction can be accomplished without closing the bridge. At a minimum, he said, any closure period should be expedited.

Paul Morris, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission, called the planned closure “painful,” but its results will dramatically improve the approach to downtown Memphis and reconnect the French Fort neighborhood to downtown.

“I certainly wish there were a way for them to do the work without closing the bridge, which is going to be very bad for downtown and West Memphis,” Morris said. “This is little comfort, but we will have the Big River Crossing over the Harahan open by the time of the closure, meaning that it will be easier to bike rather than drive across the Mississippi River.”

If the bridge is closed as TDOT plans, I-55 traffic would be diverted to I-240 through Midtown, up to I-40 and across the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Doughty said TDOT plans to work closely with local law enforcement and emergency services to keep traffic running efficiently in case of an accident.

Doughty said TDOT closed a section of I-40 close to downtown Knoxville in 2008, and the project went “incredibly smoothly.”

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Special Sections

A Bird’s-Eye View: The Mississippi River Bridges

78cf/1243306029-bridges-aerialview.jpg I wanted to share an interesting old photograph that I found tucked away in a Central High School yearbook. It’s an aerial view of the three old Memphis bridges that cross the Mississippi at the South Bluffs area. (Click on it to enlarge it.)

The view is looking eastward towards Memphis from Arkansas. From left to right, you have the Harahan Bridge (1914), the Frisco Bridge (1892 — called “The Great Bridge” when it first opened), and the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (1949).

What’s really interesting is that if you look very carefully at the top of the photo, at the easternmost end of the Harahan Bridge, you can see a portion of the insanely complicated one-way road system that gave automobiles access to the roadways that were suspended on the outside of the bridge. They were added later, you see, and there was no space to put them inside the bridge spans.