As Washington Debates Infrastructure Plan, Federal Officials Visit Closed Memphis Bridge

Washington leaders were in Memphis Thursday to assess the impact of the closed Hernando de Soto Bridge over the Mississippi River.

The visit, which included a roundtable at FedEx that featured U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, comes as Congress continues to debate a federal infrastructure bill.

“We really, as a country, have been coasting off infrastructure decisions that were made a generation ago,” Buttigieg said. “And they served America well in the 20th century, and well into the 21st. But it is long past time for those generations now in positions of responsibility to do our part.

Last month, engineers shut down the De Soto Bridge, which links downtown Memphis to Arkansas along I-40, after discovering a crack in the structure. In the weeks since, the bridge has become a political rallying point. Democrats say the shutdown shows how urgent it is for Congress to pass President Joe Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan. Republicans counter that it demonstrates the need to focus infrastructure on roads and bridges.

“I-40 is a coast-to-coast federal interstate highway crossing our nation from North Carolina to California,” Blackburn said. “This bridge situation deserves to have the full and immediate attention of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Biden administration.”

Courtesy Sen. Marsha Blackburn

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, right, took part in a roundtable at the FedEx headquarters in Memphis to discuss infrastructure and the impact of the closure of the Hernando de Soto Bridge.

Trucks can cross the Mississippi using a nearby bridge on I-55, but the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, Shannon Samples Newton, told the panel that they’re experiencing hourlong backups. The next closest alternatives involve detours that take truckers dozens of miles out of their way.

Newton says the result is trucking companies are seeing added expenses of $2 million a day from the disruption, demonstrating how important roads and bridges remain — even in a high-tech economy.

“The infrastructure that we depend on is aging, she said. “And we’re going to have to invest more in order to rely on it and use it in the way that we want to in today’s economy.”

Katie Riordan with WKNO in Memphis contributed to this report.