Interstate 55 in Memphis/West Memphis Questions

[MikeTheActuary]

P.S.

It looks like the project's Facebook page is being updated.  No completion date jumped out at me, but they do have a link to a construction cam, with a nifty ability to look back at past images

[MikeTheActuary]

Has construction started on the Crump Blvd interchange revamp yet?

Nope.  Still the same old mess.

[lordsutch]

Nope.  Still the same old mess.

Specifically it's been delayed at least a year so everyone can argue about whether it's better to rip the band-aid off or take it off slowly. Honestly if they're proposing dropping I-55 down to one lane in each direction, they might as well close it completely and get it over with.

If needing the old bridge in an emergency that closes the new bridge is really a serious prospect, design the construction staging so one lane in each direction can be reopened within 24 hours for urgent traffic only that can't be diverted outside the area, even if it has to be substandard to meet such a deadline.

[MikeTheActuary]

Specifically it's been delayed at least a year so everyone can argue about whether it's better to rip the band-aid off or take it off slowly. Honestly if they're proposing dropping I-55 down to one lane in each direction, they might as well close it completely and get it over with.

If needing the old bridge in an emergency that closes the new bridge is really a serious prospect, design the construction staging so one lane in each direction can be reopened within 24 hours for urgent traffic only that can't be diverted outside the area, even if it has to be substandard to meet such a deadline.

Actually, I was under the impression that Arkansans weren't happy about the prospect of ambulances having to be stuck in traffic on I-40 in case of medical emergency, and that was the headline excuse in the postponement.

If that were the real problem, I'd bet construction could be staged in such a way as to permit emergency vehicles and commuter buses (i.e. start/expand shuttle bus service to downtown and East Memphis, to alleviate commuter pressures) to pass through the construction area.  It wouldn't be ideal, but doing construction with a single lane open to a very limited volume of traffic would have to be better than doing construction with mainline I-55 traffic passing through.

[Wayward Memphian]

Has construction started on the Crump Blvd interchange revamp yet?

No, Arkansas is steadfast on no bridge closure.  Build one of the Southern Gateway choices(particularly the Southernmost one) and perils of one bridge would be greatly reduced. Haslem is going to Asia to promote the new supersite just east of Arlington, the V1-7 bridge(55/555 to 69/269)  makes great sense for that as well, as it links the steel mills of NEA and potentially  new BNSF rail lines more directly to it. But one major wreck on the Desoto approaches with I-55 shut down would be an epic cluster of biblical proportions.

[mvak36]

Sort of related to this, but are there any plans to build a new I-55 bridge in the future (maybe in the next 20 years)? If I remember correctly, wasn't this the one that would be really vulnerable if the New Madrid fault happened again?

[Wayward Memphian]

A few weeks back, someone climbed to the top of the New Bridge (Hernando Desoto/I-40) threatening to end it all via social media. The Bridge was shutdown for a time. Now, if this happens while the Old Bridge is shut down, there's a major cluster. Arkansas' intermodal facilities  is cut off, emergency vehicles cut. (West Memphis is without a hospital but Baptist is planning on a new one) and just the plain fact that it is a major crossroads makes a complete closure of one bridge untenable.

The facts are that there are just 10 lanes of interstate that cross the Mississippi in Memphis proper. 4 of them are squeezed onto a bridge that was not designed to be an Interstate bridge. Even with the work on the Tennessee side done, it's a very narrow, dangerous bridge with the traffic volume that uses it.

I'm all for the reworking that Tennessee wants to do as it is needed regardless, but it's high time that a new bridge carrying 6 lanes is built. The obvious choice is the V1-1 option on The Southern Gateway map and a rerouting of I-55 using this corridor.

[lordsutch]

Linky to the thread referencing the Southern Gateway.

The issue with any new crossing is funding, and that funding isn't going to show up until well after the I-55/Crump interchange is fixed, further reducing the need for a third crossing. Unlike Louisville the political will isn't there for tolls (and I'm not sure the local market can support them at a meaningful level either), particularly on existing bridges, which are the only realistic way a third crossing will be financed any more quickly.

V1-1 in principle is great. But it cuts out Tennessee, the state with the most resources to pay for a crossing, and Arkansas and Mississippi aren't building two new $1 billion Mississippi River bridges+approaches even if Washington cuts a check for 90% of the bill for each. A bridge with Tennessee's participation like V1-6 or V1-7 is more realistic, particularly since these options would open up the largely rural North Shelby County/Millington area for a lot more warehouse/trans-shipment development.

[Wayward Memphian]

Linky to the thread referencing the Southern Gateway.

The issue with any new crossing is funding, and that funding isn't going to show up until well after the I-55/Crump interchange is fixed, further reducing the need for a third crossing. Unlike Louisville the political will isn't there for tolls (and I'm not sure the local market can support them at a meaningful level either), particularly on existing bridges, which are the only realistic way a third crossing will be financed any more quickly.

V1-1 in principle is great. But it cuts out Tennessee, the state with the most resources to pay for a crossing, and Arkansas and Mississippi aren't building two new $1 billion Mississippi River bridges+approaches even if Washington cuts a check for 90% of the bill for each. A bridge with Tennessee's participation like V1-6 or V1-7 is more realistic, particularly since these options would open up the largely rural North Shelby County/Millington area for a lot more warehouse/trans-shipment development.

I know how much you are invested in I-69, but any money for that bridge should have been better used elsewhere considering the perfectly fine new bridge at Lake Village.

The V1-7 route is a fantastic choice but has drawbacks. It would shift I-55 traffic across to the future I-69 and through the heart of Memphis along with it creating more congestion for 2hat is now the west part of the 240 loop. It would be an excellent link up of NEA's steel mills to the Mega Site that Tennessee is pushing just east of Arlington via 269 however. I doubt it would capture much I-40 traffic at all unless directed there when needed via electronic signage at West Memphis. Now, on the the transhipment bit, I assume you mean the larger intermodal facilities for containers and vehicles just north of I-40 on the western side of West Memphis. Now, that would be best served by the V1-1 option. In a perfect world it would be this:
(ghostbuster trigger warning)

[mvak36]

V1-1 in principle is great. But it cuts out Tennessee, the state with the most resources to pay for a crossing, and Arkansas and Mississippi aren't building two new $1 billion Mississippi River bridges+approaches even if Washington cuts a check for 90% of the bill for each. A bridge with Tennessee's participation like V1-6 or V1-7 is more realistic, particularly since these options would open up the largely rural North Shelby County/Millington area for a lot more warehouse/trans-shipment development.

I like the VI-7 idea because that way you could extend 269 and get a sort of semi-beltway around Memphis. It would divert at least some of the traffic away from West Memphis and could be used if they ever decide to rebuild that I-55 bridge.

[lordsutch]

I know how much you are invested in I-69, but any money for that bridge should have been better used elsewhere considering the perfectly fine new bridge at Lake Village.

Perhaps, but realistically I think MS and AR are more likely to get money from DC to help a distressed region than they are to connect two sparsely-populated suburbs of Memphis. And as you've pointed out before, an expressway from West Memphis to the Tunica casinos would rouse the bootlegger-Baptist coalition in Arkansas.

V1-1 also suffers (like V1-7) from the fact that most of the I-55 traffic isn't headed through the metro area without stopping somewhere between West Memphis and Hernando, so the traffic will still end up on the Hernando De Soto and Memphis-Arkansas crossings anyway.

As for intermodal, I'm mostly referring to the big warehouse operations that today are mostly on the Shelby Drive corridor. Millington and the US 51 corridor today lacks the connectivity to the interstates that area has; either V1-6 and V1-7 along with I-69 would provide it.

No matter what happens in any scenario, the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge will eventually need to be replaced with a modern crossing tying in at the same location (i.e. V1-5). V1-6 at least would probably divert enough local traffic to make a long-term shutdown to do it feasible.

[Wayward Memphian]

I know how much you are invested in I-69, but any money for that bridge should have been better used elsewhere considering the perfectly fine new bridge at Lake Village.

Perhaps, but realistically I think MS and AR are more likely to get money from DC to help a distressed region than they are to connect two sparsely-populated suburbs of Memphis. And as you've pointed out before, an expressway from West Memphis to the Tunica casinos would rouse the bootlegger-Baptist coalition in Arkansas.

V1-1 also suffers (like V1-7) from the fact that most of the I-55 traffic isn't headed through the metro area without stopping somewhere between West Memphis and Hernando, so the traffic will still end up on the Hernando De Soto and Memphis-Arkansas crossings anyway.

As for intermodal, I'm mostly referring to the big warehouse operations that today are mostly on the Shelby Drive corridor. Millington and the US 51 corridor today lacks the connectivity to the interstates that area has; either V1-6 and V1-7 along with I-69 would provide it.

No matter what happens in any scenario, the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge will eventually need to be replaced with a modern crossing tying in at the same location (i.e. V1-5). V1-6 at least would probably divert enough local traffic to make a long-term shutdown to do it feasible.

It's been distressed for so long, there's hardly anyone left except for the farmers and their hands.

If Lake Village wasn't good enough, Helena could've used a new bridge and there's some folks left there. I know, I know, Trent Lott.

Trigger Alert, other insane idea,  outer Memphis loop

[froggie]

If Lake Village wasn't good enough, Helena could've used a new bridge and there's some folks left there. I know, I know, Trent Lott.

The old US 82 Greenville bridge was in more dire need of replacement than the US 49 Helena bridge.  Hence why it got the funding a decade-and-change ago.

[lordsutch]

If Lake Village wasn't good enough, Helena could've used a new bridge and there's some folks left there. I know, I know, Trent Lott.

The old US 82 Greenville bridge was in more dire need of replacement than the US 49 Helena bridge.  Hence why it got the funding a decade-and-change ago.

Specifically the old US 82 bridge was in a bad location for barge strikes, being close to a bend in the navigation channel and having piers close to it. The US 49 bridge has had similar (but fewer) such problems.

[MikeTheActuary]

Apologies again for re-bumping this old thread...but I noticed that the Harahan bikeway/walkway is scheduled to open on 22 October.

The Commercial Appeal has an article and a link to a short YouTube video shot fron the bridge.

[Wayward Memphian]

Apologies again for re-bumping this old thread...but I noticed that the Harahan bikeway/walkway is scheduled to open on 22 October.

The Commercial Appeal has an article and a link to a short YouTube video shot fron the bridge.

Wish Arkansas would build up islands for development much like Mud Island was done between the two interstates.  It is just a grander version of how they built up land  for the new weigh stations. Use dredging spoils and create lakes between the islands for build up soil.

[Bobby5280]

I'm not a big fan of using land fill to re-claim land from rivers or swamps in that region due to the historic risk of earthquakes. New Madrid is not far from there. Such land can be prone to soil liquefaction during a significant earthquake unless some new and not so cheap methods are used to make the land fill more stable. They certainly have to do a lot more than make a berm and then fill in the area with dirt.

[Wayward Memphian]

I'm not a big fan of using land fill to re-claim land from rivers or swamps in that region due to the historic risk of earthquakes. New Madrid is not far from there. Such land can be prone to soil liquefaction during a significant earthquake unless some new and not so cheap methods are used to make the land fill more stable. They certainly have to do a lot more than make a berm and then fill in the area with dirt.

All of northeastern Arkansas is prone to liquidification, anywhere between Crowleys Ridge and the Mississippi River. What I've suggested is not much different than the current are know as Mud Island River Park. During the last period of big ones in  the early 1800's, areas northwest of there(St. Francis Lake) and farther north(Reelfoot) was what sunk and that didn't much change.  The fault is to the west of West Memphis. Really, more in line with the St. Francis River.

When I say development, I'm not talking skyscrapers, but things like a 3 to 6 story hotels, maybe an island devoted for an office campus. An island for housing just like the northern end of Mud Island, an island for tourism development like a possible theme park , water park, hotel with indoor waterpark, ect, ect, ect.

Basically, if you look at Google Earth the land between the levee as the western border and the river as the eastern border with the interstates acting as the northern and southern border as the boundary for this idea.

Land east and north of the train tracks would by used for a series of islands raised to at least 10 ft. Higher than the high water mark Memphis had a few years back. Each one would have a designed purpose, one for mixed use/ housing, one for corporate/office development, one as a new riverside park, one for retail like an outlet mall, lifestyle center, and one geared toward tourism(water park resort hotel,theme park, ect. Built a slack water harbor/Marina. The islands would sprayed by lakes and connected via boulevards and bridges.

As for the land between the train tracks or west and south of them, this is new nature park/wetlands preserve,reconstruct sloughs with cypress and tupelo  with native hardwords. Build trails and observation platforms, ect. Use it to help businesses with mitigation needs or help as part of the recruitment of businesses. Remember that Mississippi was helped by dedicating a forest area in the name of Toyota.

[lordsutch]

At the very least, you'd have to replace floodplain acre-for-acre somewhere else. And from an economic perspective, there is sufficient cheap, usable land near enough to the river on the Tennessee side to make such a development rather pointless. Redeveloping the neighborhood south of the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (I-55), for example, would be far cheaper. Further south, there's all the land you'd ever want with river views on President's Island, while north of Mud Island you could redevelop the DeWitt Spain Airport property (general aviation could move to Millington or Olive Branch).

The only reason to build something elevated in the floodplain would be if you could do something legally in Arkansas that can't be done in Tennessee, like build a casino. But if there was a legal way to do that, Southland would have figured out how to move there years ago.