While DC haggles over infrastructure package, backlogged bridge repairs cost drivers

Truck driver Clifton Hughey heard talk all his life about a potential third highway bridge to cross the Mississippi River near Memphis.

But with one of the two interstate spans here closed after inspectors discovered a critical crack, Hughey's once thirty-minute trip to haul goods at a nearby train terminal is now a grinding two- or three-hour detour. "They've been talking about it since I was little," Hughey told CNN, standing next to his shiny red Peterbilt. Haulers like Hughey are paid by the mile, not the hour. "We look at working five days a week but you're only getting paid for three because of the bridge out."