Memphisa€™ Interstate 40 link stays shut to visitors after a break was uncovered will 11, which has forced a huge number of trucks and cars to divert for the Interstate 55 link to cross the Mississippi River.
I-40 bridge maintenance will probably carry on through July, which means Memphis-area commuters and truck people will deal with long website traffic jams for weeks. On Summer 10, industrial attraction logistics reporter maximum Garland took a trip over the I-55 link four times to see simply how much the I-40 connection’s closing try reducing Memphis-area motorists.
Memphis to Arkansas (Day)
7:30 a.m.: I joined onto I-55 North from I-240 South. It performedna€™t take very long personally to cross the connection into Arkansas, and I didn’t come with issue attaining the performance restriction.
When I drove into western Memphis, we noticed on the other hand of I-55 a logjam of cars and trucks wanting to enter Tennessee via the connection. Traffic is copied in the Interstate approximately 12 miles, well-past Southland Casino Racing.
At long last achieved the termination of the type of website traffic touring into Memphis, and I pulled down at a leave near Tilden Rodgers playground and reentered onto I-40 East to become listed on the commuters and truck people.
Morning drive times into Arkansas: 19 kilometers; 25 mins
Normal performance: 45.5 miles per hour
Arkansas to Memphis (Early Morning)
7:55 a.m.: site visitors slowed down significantly less than a distance before the I-40/I-55 mix part of West Memphis. Website traffic crawled along at less than five miles per hour as semi-trucks and sedans combined into one lane.
8:10 a.m.: I hit the merge point of the three-lane I-40/I-55 interchange, which had their center lane closed. The closurea€™s purpose is lower merging points and boost website traffic stream. My cara€™s rate hovered around 3 to 4 miles-per-hour.
8:45 a.m.: Drivers 
inside left lane, which included my self, transferred to the center way. We’d no preference, because left lane was sealed avoiding motorists from taking I-40 eastern and travel toward the closed link.
Website traffic obtained speeds somewhat after I-40 and I-55 divide, and I also at long last attained and entered the I-55 link at 9:20 a.m. We continued east onto E.H. Crump Boulevard, where site visitors subsided, but We saw drivers continuing on I-55 southern area experienced more traffic into Memphis.
Afternoon drive opportunity into Memphis: 13 miles; 60 minutes, 25 moments
Ordinary rate: 9 miles per hour
Memphis to Arkansas (Mid-day)
12:07 p.m.: I took the same route used to do in the morning, blending onto I-55 North via I-240 Southern. For ten full minutes, site visitors flowed also it performed each morning.
12:17 p.m.: we fulfilled a website traffic jam on I-55 North multiple miles prior to the bridge, around the Valero Refinery in Southern Memphis. They got 40 moments to travel about 4 kilometers.
1:08 p.m.: we crossed the I-55 link, followed by congestion had been very little and that I was easily capable achieve the rate limitation. However, I watched a sea of vehicles throughout the opposite side going into Memphis. This jam expanded 15 kilometers through the I-55 bridge. When we noticed congestion clear-up further into Arkansas, we accompanied all of them.
Afternoon drive times into Arkansas: 22 kilometers; 60 minutes, 27 minutes
Average rate: 15 mph
Arkansas to Memphis (Day)
1:23 p.m.: website traffic on I-40 East near West Memphis slowed down several miles ahead of the I-40/I-55 blend aim, and once once more we hardly ever surpassed 4 miles-per-hour. We drawn off at an exit for a 15-minute split before rejoining site visitors.
3:15 p.m.: we attained the I-40/I-55 Interchange, along with its sealed center lane, idling in visitors near Baptist Memorial medical facility Crittenden in West Memphis. I seen a few cars and a semi-truck cut through turf isolating Service path from an exit ramp so that you can join the site visitors, despite an entryway further later on.
4:32 p.m.: rates at long last picked up to 20 miles an hour or so less than a mile from I-55 bridge, and I eventually entered it about three days once I began my 15-mile trek back to Memphis. When I drove home on E.H. Crump Boulevard, I watched vehicles supported for at least three kilometers. The journey ended up being more for me, not for hundreds of other people.
Afternoon drive times into Memphis: 16 miles; 2 hours, 54 mins