Problem Bridge Near Downtown Nashville Makes Case For Replenishing Highway Trust Fund

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx held a press conference on Charlotte Ave near a bridge that has required emergency repairs. Foxx was previously the Mayor of Charlotte and says he knows how important infrastructure is in a city the size of Nashville. Credit: Blake Farmer / WPLN

The Obama Administration is using a patched-up bridge in Nashville to make it’s case for putting more money into the federal Highway Trust Fund.

On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx stood near downtown in front of an I-40 bridge that has required emergency repairs, even as 131,000 cars travel over it each weekday.

“These bridges are emblematic of what our country needs to be doing. Just last summer, the Charlotte Avenue bridge was closed not once, not twice, but three times – because chunks of concrete were falling.”

At the event, Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer outlined plans to rehab the 1960s-era bridges as soon as this year, closing down sections of the Interstate on 12 weekends to meet an accelerated schedule, but not if the trust fund isn’t replenished by Congress.

Secretary Foxx is on a multi-state tour highlighting what he calls an “urgent need to invest in Americans transportation infrastructure.” He has proposed a $302 billion, four-year surface transportation reauthorization proposal, which Congress has not been interested in approving.