- June 17, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
MEMPHIS—An emergency closure of the Interstate-40 bridge across the Mississippi River has jammed traffic for over a month, denting companies’ bottom lines, hampering the region’s economic recovery from the pandemic and further straining an already stretched national supply chain.
The six-lane bridge linking Tennessee and Arkansas helps make Memphis a critical U.S. distribution hub, along with the headquarters of
FedEx Corp.
, a large port and five major freight railroads. It has been closed since May 11, when a contractor for the Arkansas Transportation Department spotted a large crack in a steel support beam that officials said put the span in jeopardy of failing.
Typically, about 40,000 cars and trucks a day would cross the bridge, a double-arch steel structure that is almost 2 miles long.
The bridge’s deficiencies highlight the aging of U.S. infrastructure amid a debate in Washington over a…
