"Contingency planning is in our DNA," Rosenberg said. "We work around bridge closing in the same way we do floods or tornadoes, earthquakes or even tsunamis."
Dealing with bridge closures is a "fairly standard" part of Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx Corp. operations and the company "simply adjusts," Jim McCluskey, a spokesman for the world's largest package-delivery service, said in an e-mail.
Rural Bridges
Detours from bridge closings in rural areas can cost farmers 5 cents a bushel, according to a study by the Illinois Soybean Checkoff and the Illinois Corn Marketing Board. The study said that closed or weight-restricted bridges lead to detours in rural areas of as much as 20 miles. About one-fifth of rural bridges are in poor to mediocre condition, according to the federal highway agency.
Randolph, Nebraska, farmer Jim Kuchta was charged $28,000 by his local township after a 40-year-old bridge he'd been using since 1979 collapsed two years ago as he drove across it in his combine.
Kuchta's $350,000 combine exceeded the bridge's weight limit of 11 tons. A crane was needed to pull out the combine at a cost of $1,400, Kuchta said in a telephone interview. Because the combine exceeded the weight limit, township officials charged him for the damage.
"That money disappears into a hole somewhere," Kuchta said. "The whole process has to revamped."