Closing I-55 bridge at Memphis stirs protest
By Roy Ockert Jr.
July 7, 2015
The Tennessee Department of Transportation plans to build a wall on its side of the Mississippi River bridge at Memphis to keep Arkansans out, starting in 2017.
OK, that’s not the real purpose, but TDOT’s plans to close the Interstate 55 bridge for construction and improvements will surely limit transportation between Tennessee and Arkansas. The idea is to re-route traffic to the Hernando De Soto Bridge that carries I-40 traffic over the Mississippi a few miles upstream.
Both bridges are already heavily travelled, and closing either one even temporarily, such as for an accident, slows traffic to a standstill.
That’s in part because for several years the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department has been operating an obstacle course on the I-40-55 artery that leads to both bridges. Driving through there means trying to squeeze your car between a semi-tractor trailer truck and a temporary concrete barrier while trying to follow the lane changes.
Did I mention dodging the potholes and ruts?
All this, of course, is in the name of progress. Repairing such a heavily used road certainly isn’t easy. Workers put their lives at risk while toiling on a closed lane within a few feet of a never-ending line of cars and big trucks.
No matter how many warning signs go up, some people are going to push through as fast as they can. Police can’t really enforce a speed limit when there is no room to stop the speeders without stopping all traffic.
Adding to the difficult of getting across the river at Memphis has been a Federal Highway Administration project to retrofit the De Soto Bridge so that it will withstand an earthquake. For more than a year now that has limited traffic to one lane each way and closed some exits and entrances.
Just trying to follow the signs through either route gives me a headache. Sometimes it would be faster and easier to get across the river by ferry — if only one were available.
In fact, when returning from a trip to North Carolina last month, I decided to avoid the mess altogether and drove about 30 miles out of the way to cross the river near Caruthersville. That’s not practical for many people, though.
The TDOT project that will cause closing of the “old bridge” is needed, according to highway officials, to eliminate the safety and congestion problems on the Memphis side of the bridge, where an old cloverleaf design handles both local and interstate traffic. Eventually, I-55 traffic will go through on a sweeping curve, and a traffic roundabout will link local traffic bound to and from Crump Boulevard, Riverside Drive and Alston Avenue.
The whole thing will cost an estimated $60 million, and the price tag is growing. TDOT officials say it would cost much more except for the bridge closure, which was labeled at alternative Z-1.
That sounds a bit like a last choice, doesn’t it?
Some of the best coverage of the issue has been done by a Memphis Flyer, an alternative weekly newspaper.
A July 2 story describes the full project, which calls for the bridge to be closed for about nine months beginning in March 2017 under phase 2. One lane of the bridge would be kept open for emergency vehicles only. That’s critical for much of eastern and northeastern Arkansas to reach the superb medical facilities in Memphis. West Memphis has no hospital at present.
Phase 1 is due to start next March, and the project would be completed by November 2018.
Nine months doesn’t sound like a long time, but in “construction-speak” that can mean anything. The interstate work in West Memphis seems to have been going on since the last century.
During the closure all I-55 traffic will be re-routed to the I-40 bridge, then on to I-240, which goes through mid-town Memphis and eventually connects with I-55 near the Memphis International Airport. That’s quite a detour.
The Flyer article said a transportation consulting firm had estimated that closing the old bridge would add 46,850 more vehicles daily to the De Soto Bridge and around 40,000 more to I-240 mid-town.
TDOT Commissioner John Schoer said one of the alternative plans was a 5-year project with no bridge closure, but he said that was not safe, not as efficient and “financially a horrible option.”
About the only people convinced that TDOT is right are the mayors of Memphis and Shelby County, both of whom said the project is needed and that the department has done everything possible to minimize the impact.
But a June 1 public hearing in West Memphis produced skepticism and downright hostility, according to a Memphis Commercial Appeal report. More than 300 people attended.
Arkansas Sen. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, has become a leader of the opposition, organizing an online petition drive to “Keep the ‘Old Bridge’ Open.” The petition is available at www.change.org/p/keep-the-old-bridge-open and as of Monday morning had 2,553 supporters.
Ingram’s effort gained an endorsement recently from the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, which encouraged its members to sign the petition. In a news release Ingram urged TDOT to “go back to the drawing board to develop a solution that works best for everyone.”
Z-1 isn’t it.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.