The idea of a third bridge across the Mississippi River at Memphis for truck and car traffic came up Thursday, June 3, as U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took a look at repair work on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and huddled with local and state elected officials.

But the concept, last seriously explored more than 20 years ago, isn’t at the top of the list for everyone who met privately with Buttigieg.

Buttigieg hears of disruptions caused by broken bridge

Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis, who was Buttigieg’s host during the visit, talked about it as a long-term goal.

“We’ve given a whistle — a canary in the coal mine — to the rest of the country about what they need to look out for in the way of infrastructure and deficiencies and possible problems,” he said.

Buttigieg was clear that federal officials fund but don’t pick such projects.

New bridge movement energized by Hernando DeSoto closure

“That is a decision to be made by the states and the local communities here,” he said of a third bridge. “This is a time for us to make sure we gather the resources both to look after what we have and to expand where there needs to be expansion.”

But Buttigieg says there is a federal interest and role in the river crossing that carries goods and materials in trucks on the two vehicular bridges and by rail on two other bridges at Memphis as well as the barges on the river that travel beneath the bridges.

“There are two bridges and they are the only ones for a long way. When one of them goes out, everything depends on that remaining bridge,” he said.

“It’s not my place to tell the communities or states what the right solution is for them,” Buttigieg added. “I do think there’s a federal role in making sure there are more resources available when they are decided on by states and communities.”

Cohen is in the thick of negotiations between the Biden administration and Congressional Republicans on a broader infrastructure bill that goes to the House Transportation Infrastructure committee next week for a critical “mark-up,” or setting of specific terms.

In the latest “counter offer” by the White House, Buttigieg says the administration has “moved by about half a trillion dollars.”

And he said Congressional Republicans took a position just before that “seemed to embrace that something on the order of a trillion dollars around the transportation side of things was appropriate.

“But the president has also said inaction is not an option,” Buttigieg added. “And we know there is a clock on all of this.”

Federal money for bridge repairs may be on the way

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland talked with Buttigieg about the part of infrastructure funding that could go toward broadband — an expansion of the definition of infrastructure that goes beyond roads, bridges and pavement.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know what my position on a third bridge is,” Strickland told The Daily Memphian. “I have so many other requests for infrastructure and maintenance that I don’t want to crowd those out with the ask for the third bridge.”

“What I talked to the secretary about was what’s in his bill on broadband,” he said. “I think broadband is as important today as electricity was 100 years ago.”

The city’s Housing and Community Development division is working with the Memphis-Shelby County Planning and Development Division to develop a plan for broadband access in parts of the city with the least access and working off pilot programs in Soulsville and South City.

“We have parts of Memphis that don’t have access to broadband,” Strickland said. “It costs millions of dollars and we don’t have enough money our of our normal budget. That’s infrastructure.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who was part of the roundtable discussion with Buttigieg earlier in the day at FedEx, has sought to define infrastructure priorities as roads and bridges as well as broadband without President Joe Biden’s expansion to include clean energy initiatives.

A week after the bridge was closed, Blackburn criticized Buttigieg for not coming immediately to Memphis to assess the damage. She’s also been critical of how it would be paid for.

She has been a vocal critic of Biden’s infrastructure plan as “green new deal fantasies” and has called on Biden to stick to roads and bridges as President Trump did.

Meanwhile, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was in the city Thursday for visits that appeared to be related to the 225 anniversary of the state’s founding but which were not on his public schedule.

Lee posted pictures on Twitter of a visit to the Stax museum as well as lunch at the Four Way Grill.

The state’s junior Republican U.S. Senator, Bill Hagerty, was complimentary of Buttigieg for the visit to Memphis as well as an earlier visit to the city by Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack.

But his Tweet also said he considers the bridge to be his idea of “real infrastructure” and complained of “special interests (who) can take advantage of the crisis by redefining themselves as infrastructure.”

The partisan differences were muted at the FedEx roundtable, and several officials at the Downtown press conference, including Buttigieg, said they were encouraged that elected officials have been working “across party lines” to get the bridge repaired and reopened as rapidly as possible.

Buttigieg thanked Cohen for his support of the administration and of Blackburn, he said he took time to “hear her perspective.”

The last situation where Tennessee leaders visited a bridge with problems was much grimmer.

The April 1, 1989, collapse of part of the Hatchie River Bridge north of Memphis brought a delegation of elected leaders, led by then-U.S. Sen. Al Gore and U.S. Rep. John Tanner of Union City, to a helicopter landing near the open edge of the broken bridge.

The elected officials in suits walked to the edge and stood for a few minutes looking into the muddy waters where eight people died when five cars fell into the river below.

Buttigeig’s view on the bridge was a different one as work crews past preliminary work were preparing for the delivery of the hardware for a permanent fix.

Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Clay Bright ran through the specs of brackets weighing 20,000 pounds each, eight rods built to hold 3 million pounds of stress and two permanent plates weighing 53 tons and assembled with 3,000 bolts being fabricated now for delivery later this month.

Democratic state Rep. Torrey Harris of Memphis says that is the immediate priority.

“I think that once we get to a place where we have an understanding as to what this bridge is going to do, I think that’s when the conversation of a third bridge could start,” he said. “We have a great bridge here that will be repaired and worked on right now.”

State legislators call for third bridge to Memphis

The installation of a permanent fix is expected to take through July, maybe into August before the bridge fix is done, inspections are done and traffic is flowing again on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.

“To be honest, all the answers aren’t there yet,” Buttigieg said of not only the repair work but a federal review of earlier inspections by Arkansas Department of Transportation teams that missed the damage.

“There will be a lot of pressure to say that things are certain before they are,” he said. “As a country, we have been coasting off of infrastructure decisions that were made generations ago. The best time to do something like this is yesterday. The next best time is today.”