Bridge important for ag shipping is closed

A bridge inspector on May 11 discovered a “significant fracture” that has indefinitely closed the Hernando de Soto Bridge that carries Interstate Highway 40 across the Mississippi River between Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, Arkansas. The crack—located on a beam essential to the bridge’s structural integrity—was identified during a routine inspection that occurs every two years.

In addition to the suspension of vehicular traffic across the bridge, the closure has resulted in a temporary suspension of barge traffic passing underneath the bridge, according to Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, Ankeny, Iowa. It remains to be seen when barge traffic will be allowed to resume, but any suspension of traffic—even temporarily—on the Mississippi River is most unwelcome to United States agriculture, he said.

Almost every barge loaded with soybeans, corn, or other agricultural commodity along the Upper Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, or Missouri Rivers are destined to Gulf of Mexico export facilities near New Orleans and therefore must pass underneath the I-40 bridge, Steenhoek said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the week ending May 1, 438 barges moved down river destined for Gulf export facilities, he said. Most of these barges were loaded in areas north of Memphis. It is reasonable to assume hundreds of barges of U.S. grain will be negatively impacted by the closure depending on its duration. Because U.S. soybeans are primarily exported between the months of September and February, other commodities, particularly corn, will bear more of the brunt of the barge traffic suspension, but soybeans will clearly be impacted as well, Steenhoek said.