CEAC-2021-07-July

dent Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposals.
Republicans in both states said the closure highlighted the
need for infrastructure spending, but not Biden’s $2.3 trillion
plan, which they’ve argued is far too sweeping in its definition
of public works.
“This underscores exactly what I heard from Tennesseans
last week on the topic of infrastructure: investing in hard
infrastructure — roads and bridges — is exactly the type of
investments taxpayers will see a return on and will support,”
U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty in Tennessee said.
Sen. John Boozman from Arkansas said he prefers a plan by
GOP lawmakers that instead calls for spending $568 billion
on infrastructure over five years.
“I think infrastructure is an urgent need. I don’t agree with
the president’s plan at all,” Boozman said.
In an inspection for the 2020 National Bridge Inventory report,
the Federal Highway Administration said the I-40 bridge
checked out in fair condition overall, with all primary structure
elements sound and only some minor cracks and chips
in the overall structure. Its structural evaluation checked out
“somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being
left in place as is.”
However, height and width clearances for oversize vehicles
were “basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective
action,” the inspectors found. Tennessee recommended
“bridge deck replacement with only incidental widening.”
Arkansas transportation officials said the crack did not appear
in the last inspection of the bridge, which occurred in
September 2020.
The I-40 bridge, which opened in 1973, carried a 2020 average
of 35,000 vehicles a day across the river, 29 percent of
them trucks, according to the report. Degges said the average
is closer to 50,000 vehicles a day, with about a quarter
being trucks. Its traffic volume was expected to increase to
56,000 vehicles a day by 2040, the report said.
“I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom, but this is a pretty
dire situation for the regional economy ... This is going to
really create some potential problems for us,” said Republican
U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, whose district includes the east
Arkansas end of the bridge.
The span also has undergone about $280 million worth of
retrofitting for the possibility of an earthquake.
Bleed and DeMillo reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated
Press reporter Jonathan Mattise in Nashville contributed
to this report.
Volume 86 · Number 7 | 47