![]() The 2021 I-40 bridge failure between Memphis and West Memphis, Arkansas, was a key crossroads for trading, a report from the Bureau of Transportation found. The state had fast tracked $234 million to build the bridge ahead of the deadline, reports said. “This economic loss has the potential to cost the state jobs throughout the economy,” the study said.īut because I-35W was such an important route for commuters and truckers, the bridge was rebuilt a little over a year later, much ahead of the December 2008 timeline, which was already considered to be fast. The study added a monetary value to travel times for cars and trucks and the operating costs of various alternate route.Īnother analysis by the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development and the transportation department found the economic loss was about $17 million in 2007 and $43 million in 2008. More than 5,000 of the vehicles were commercial trucks.Īn economic study by the state found it would cost road users $400,000 per day by using alternate routes. Previous bridge failures on key stretches of highway in Memphis and in Minneapolis cost the local economies tens of millions of dollars.īefore the Minnesota I-35W bridge collapsed in 2007, the corridor provided 140,000 vehicles direct access to downtown Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota and key local businesses, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said. Fewer than 44% of the nation’s 618,456 highway bridges are rated in good condition, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics found, and more than 45,000 bridges are in poor condition. Mass highway closures are not new throughout the US. However, Scrudder added travel behavior should stabilize as drivers become accustomed to detours. The majority of national freight movement goes through nearby Interstate 295 and the New Jersey Turnpike, making I-95 a corridor for local goods to the national network. The diversions could lead to a ripple effect in the local supply chain, Scudder said, and increased shipping and inventory storage costs. “Those industries are what’s going to feel the brunt of the disruption probably due to surface street delays and potentially diversions for shipments coming in and out,” Scudder said. There are a number of industrial businesses ranging from port facilities to manufacturing surrounding the collapsed portion of the highway, making it a prime corridor for regional freight movement, Kristen Scudder, the city’s planning commission freight program manager said Sunday. Section of northbound I-95 collapses in Philadelphia after tanker truck catches fire underneath highway ![]() ![]() Firefighters respond to the scene of the Interstate 95 collapse, after a tanker fire on June 11, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ![]()
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