Economy Is Another River Victim (Editorial)

Weeks later, it’s still hard to grasp the tragedy that happened on the Interstate 40 bridge over the Arkansas River at Webbers Falls, Okla., during the Memorial Day weekend.

Fourteen people died after a towboat with two empty barges heading upstream slammed into the concrete pylons that support the 2,000-foot bridge and knocked out a 500-foot section.

The director of the Oklahoma Transportation Department says it will take six months to repair the 35-year-old bridge that handles some 20,000 vehicles a day — many of them tractor-trailer rigs.

I-40, which connects more than 2,500 miles from North Carolina to California, is the major freight-hauling highway in the country. Its closure forces a 60-mile detour on two-lane roads if traveling east, while drivers heading west face a detour of about 10 miles.

Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, said the delays will affect service and costs. Truckers are dependent upon the interstates to move goods across the country — and time can be critical for them.

Many truckers could choose to bypass Arkansas altogether, heading north to Interstate 70 or south to Interstate 10, since they already were facing delays caused by the major interstate rebuilding project under way in the state. Of course, it was heavy truck traffic that made all those repairs necessary in the first place, but businesses along I-40 will be hurt if truckers choose other routes.

Arkansas is home to several large trucking companies that will be slowed by the bridge collapse. And barge traffic on the Arkansas River also will be affected to some degree for a while.

Let’s hope the interstate bridges in Arkansas are found safe and that Oklahoma can rebuild the bridge at Webbers Falls as quickly as possible.

Take a Real Break

School’s out, and families are looking ahead to vacations.

We remember when people actually took vacations to get away from the heavy load of the business world.

Nowadays, it seems businessmen and women are likely to take their laptops, pagers, PDAs and cell phones with them to stay connected. That’s no way to relax.

Our advice? Leave that stuff at home and relax. Disconnect. Give it a rest. Really get away from it all. None of us is indispensable.

Sure, it’ll take days to sort through hundreds of e-mails, but three-quarters of it will be spam anyway. You’ll be ready to go if you’re rested in mind, body and spirit.

Just a thought.