White House Press Release - What They Are Reading in Memphis: "Our Nation's Infrastructure is Crumbling. President Biden's Plan Will Repair Our Country"

Today, columnist Lynn Norment published a piece in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal on the historic impacts President Biden's American Jobs Plan would have on the Memphis area and across the country.

In the column, Norment writes: "This will be the biggest infrastructure package since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s and the largest investment in transportation in nearly a century. In addition, millions of mostly blue-collar jobs would be created.

"As Buttigieg said, 'We've come to a point as a country where it's clear these needs can't keep being deferred.'"

Norment also specifically highlights how Memphis in particular has seen an especially dire cause for concern as it relates to infrastructure in recent months, amplifying the need to invest in real upgrades – writing: "The closure of this important portion of I-40 caused freight disruptions across the Mid-South; Memphis International Airport is the world's busiest cargo airport. Marco McClendon, mayor of West Memphis, said his community has been nearly paralyzed by the closure.

"More than 41,000 vehicles crossed the bridge each day, 29% of them freight trucks. Now those big rigs are using and causing damage to residential streets to get to the Interstate-55 bridge. Traffic backups are nightmarish."

Click through to see fact sheets on the need for infrastructure investment in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Memphis Commercial-Appeal: Opinion: Our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. President Biden's plan will repair our country
[Lynn Norment, 7/7/21]

This will be the biggest infrastructure package since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s and the largest investment in transportation in nearly a century.

Much has been said about the state of our country's infrastructure. In general, it's in bad shape, and very little has been done to fix the problems.

I'm referring to the physical state of our bridges and tunnels, roads and highways, water systems and electrical grids, airports and other public structures that make our country livable and functional – and once was the envy of the world.

In Memphis, we have good clean drinking water, but that's not the case in many places, remember Flint, Michigan. Nevertheless, like almost everywhere else, we are plagued with bumpy streets and roads, and car-damaging potholes are common.

Have you ever noticed a questionable bridge or an interstate ramp that appears to be crumbling? Or a scary, waterlogged viaduct that makes you wonder if you will make it to the other side without being hit with a chunk of concrete. That's deteriorating infrastructure.

Infrastructure is a national concern

Ponder the state of the Hernando de Soto Bridge that carries Interstate-40 traffic across the Mississippi River to connect Tennessee and Arkansas – and the East Coast to the West Coast.

For two months now, tempers and patience of drivers have been tested as repairs are being made on the closed six-lane, 3.7-mile-long bridge. During a May inspection, a sizeable crack in a steel support beam was discovered and the nearly 50-year-old bridge immediately was shut to traffic.

The closure of this important portion of I-40 caused freight disruptions across the Mid-South; Memphis International Airport is the world's busiest cargo airport. Marco McClendon, mayor of West Memphis, said his community has been nearly paralyzed by the closure.

More than 41,000 vehicles crossed the bridge each day, 29% of them freight trucks. Now those big rigs are using and causing damage to residential streets to get to the Interstate-55 bridge. Traffic backups are nightmarish.

"We are grateful and glad this was detected without any loss of life, but that doesn't mean the closure hasn't been painful," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

Yes, we are fortunate that no major catastrophe occurred; still, the plight of the de Soto Bridge highlights the fact that so many other structures across the state and across the country are in just as bad or worse condition.

In a fact sheet supporting President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan, the White House said Tennessee, like other states, "has suffered from a systemic lack of investment" in infrastructure. Nearly 900 of the state's bridges and 270 miles of highway are rated in "poor condition," the fact sheet said.

In March, the American Society of Civil Engineers graded U.S. airports, roads, waterways and other systems a C-, indicating its view that the nation's infrastructure is in "poor to mediocre shape" and in great need of a lot of work. "A C-, as you might imagine, is not something to be particularly proud of," according to Thomas Smith, executive director of ASCE. "There's a great need for improvement.

The professional group publishes such reports every few years. And it turns out that the C- is a slight improvement of the D or D+ ("poor condition")

the group has awarded since 1998. The C reflects "mediocre condition," whereas a B is awarded to a system that is considered "adequate for now" and an A to infrastructure that is in "exceptional shape and ready for the future.

The U.S. infrastructure is far from being ready for the future. Yet, in recent years grades have improved for aviation, inland waterways and ports thanks to federal funding. On the other hand, transit scored worst with a D-; U.S. dams, roads, levees and storm water systems were graded D.

Prioritizing our infrastructure

There is ample reason that President Biden has been pushing hard for approval of a 10-year, trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill to upgrade our core.

It is estimated that improving national infrastructure enough to earn a B grade will require an investment of $2.6 trillion over the next decade, according to the engineering society.

President Obama also had an ambitious plan to upgrade the infrastructure that included rebuilding 150,000 miles of road, laying and maintaining 4,000 miles of rail track, and restoring 150 miles of airport runways. He could not get cooperation of the Republican dominated Congress that blocked his efforts. President Trump talked about investing in our country's infrastructure, but he never acted on the issue.

In 2007 I watched in horror as news reports came out about the eight-lane Interstate-35 bridge in Minneapolis dropping 60 feet into the Mississippi River. The bridge was being repaired yet loaded with rush hour traffic; 13 people died. But talk of the urgent need for repairing our country's infrastructure soon faded into the background.

That need was again emphasized earlier this year when Texas was hit with a power crisis that rendered millions of people without water or electricity. Yes, that crisis was based on infrastructure failure.

And infrastructure immediately came to mind with the collapse of the condominium building in Surfside, Fla. It may not have been a public infrastructure issue, but the death and destruction are sad and frightening, especially for high-rise dwellers across the country.

We don't know what caused the collapse; engineers speculate it could be corrosion, cracked concrete, flooding, or the fact that the building was sinking. But we do know that a 2018 inspection of the building found that it needed millions of dollars in repairs, which were about to begin.

I am hopeful that Biden's bipartisan infrastructure plan will come to fruition, for something must be done to upgrade the "nation's aging structural underpinnings," as the New York Times referred to our infrastructure. We can no longer afford to put off what needs to be done. This is not a political issue, but a necessary endeavor to upgrade the foundation of our country.

This will be the biggest infrastructure package since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s and the largest investment in transportation in nearly a century. In addition, millions of mostly blue-collar jobs would be created.

As Buttigieg said, "We've come to a point as a country where it's clear these needs can't keep being deferred."

Lynn Norment is a Memphis journalist who previously was an editor and senior writer for Ebony magazine. She can be reached at normentmedia@gmail.com.