The state highway departments in Arkansas and Tennessee applied in early December for funding made available through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to replace the Interstate 55 bridge over the Mississippi River.
The federal grant sought by the two agencies would cover half the cost of a new $800 million bridge — one fortified enough to hold up during a powerful earthquake and wide enough to better accommodate the tens of thousands of motorists who travel on it each day, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
"I'm very hopeful that it gets approved," said Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT), who announced to the state Highway Commission during a meeting Dec. 5 that the application for a new I-55 bridge had been submitted a day earlier.
"It checks so many of the boxes," she added. "For starters, the [current] bridge is not seismically designed to handle an earthquake. There's also the [large] amount of freight movement across the bridge," reasons for which, Tudor explained, made for "such a strong application."
If the funds are not approved, both state transportation departments, which co-wrote the grant application, will try again next year, she told the Little Rock-based news source.
In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced the first-ever opportunity to apply for Large Bridge Program grants under the Bridge Investment Program, which was established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) signed by President Biden two years ago.
Soon after the funding announcement, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) reached out to its Arkansas counterpart seeking a partnership to "submit a joint grant application for a large-bridge project to replace the [I-55] bridge," Tudor noted.
New Bridge Would Be Built to Withstand An Earthquake
The I-55 bridge, built over 10 years before opening in 1967, is only a couple of miles south of the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River, and both connect northeast Arkansas to Memphis, Tenn. The latter structure, known as the Hernando de Soto Bridge, gets 54,000 vehicles per day while the I-55 bridge averages 36,000 vehicles per day, according to ARDOT.
Not only is the I-40 bridge newer — having been constructed between 1967 and 1973 — it also has undergone a "seismic retrofit" to ensure that it can withstand an earthquake. By comparison, the I-55 bridge cannot undergo a similar retrofit program because of the way it is designed, Tudor said. That is a major reason an entirely new bridge needs to be constructed, she told her state's highway commissioners.
Why is it so important to build a bridge strong enough to withstand an earthquake in, of all places, the Mississippi River Valley between these two Southern states? As it happens, the region on top of the most potentially dangerous earthquake fault system east of the Rocky Mountains.
In 1811 and 1812, west Tennessee, eastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri were all shaken by a series of violent tremors, among the strongest in U.S. history. One of the New Madrid quakes — named for the small Missouri village along the banks of the river — likely would have registered up to 8.2 on the modern-day Richter scale. Its power was such that witnesses claimed the flow of the Mississippi was temporarily reversed.
Modern seismologists have said that the area in and around the New Madrid Fault Line could experience a similarly sized earthquake, Tudor told commissioners.
Alec Farmer, chair of the Highway Commission, and a native of northeast Arkansas, said during the recent meeting that talks about an earthquake and what it could do to the I-55 bridge was "not a theoretical discussion" and that warnings should be taken seriously.
"We know what happens when one of those bridges closes down," he added in reference to the three-month closure of the I-40 bridge while emergency repairs were made after a fracture was discovered in the structure.
DOTs Going All Out to Pay for New Bridge
Nichole Lawrence, a TDOT spokesperson, told the Democrat-Gazette that the application "is a strong candidate" for the federal large bridge grant.
The existing I-55 bridge has four lanes of traffic, but the new structure would "add capacity to improve mobility, remove bottlenecks and address traffic flow," although TDOT was not specific about whether new lanes would be added or how many, the daily newspaper learned.
If the grant application is not approved, then the two state transportation departments "will continue to look for opportunities for funding this future project," Lawrence said.
Tudor added that both agencies will continue to seek to get the project approved "for as long as this program is available."
ARDOT Also Needs Funding for Other Interstate Projects
In other Arkansas highway news, the USDOT on Nov. 30 announced funding opportunities for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, grant.
According to Tudor, she and her staff recommended the I-49 project in Sebastian and Crawford counties and the future I-57 project in northeast Arkansas as worthy candidates for federal funding.
The Highway Commission voted unanimously to have ARDOT apply for RAISE grants for both projects. The deadline to do so is Feb. 28, 2024.
The I-49 project begins at Arkansas Highway 22 and continues to I-40. The future I-57 project will construct a new interstate between Walnut Ridge and the Missouri state line.
Once that project is completed and the Missouri Department of Transportation completes its final portion of the future I-57, there will be one complete interstate connection from Little Rock to Chicago, Tudor said.
Today's top stories
